He was educated at Radley College and at Exeter College, Oxford, and he was Reader in Physical Anthropology at the University of Oxford between 1928 and 1939.

He conducted field work in Sudan, India, Malta, the United States, China and Mesopotamia, and in 1913 he excavated Lapithos in Cyprus under the direction of professor John Myres and Cyprus Museum curator Menelaos Markides.

During his extensive travels he documented his work through photography; the pictures are currently in the Pitt Rivers Museum.

[1] In the 1930s he carried research in Oxford with anthropologist Beatrice Blackwood.

[3][4][5] From 1914 to 1918 he served with the Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders in France and in the Intelligence Corps.