After a few months as a GP in Liverpool he joined Dr E. T. Ross at the Quarantine Service in Egypt, as a Foreign Office nominee in 1905.
[2] In February 1907 he returned to New Zealand as a district medical officer in Auckland but found himself in competition with his brother James in terms of any more senior position.
On 1 January 1916 he was promoted to Lt Colonel and placed in charge of sanitation at Tel-el-Kebir overseeing a camp of 30,000 ANZAC troops.
Also Mentioned in Dispatches he was promoted to temporary Colonel and oversaw the 3rd Australian General Hospital at Abbeville in France from January to June 1918.
In his position on the Town Planning Association of NSW he was influential in instigating a programme of slum clearance in Sydney.
[5] He was also President of the Returned Sailors and Soldiers Imperial League of Australia and Deputy Chairman of the St John's Ambulance Association.