His mother was Lilian-May, and his father, Jack, was a plumber who worked in a naval dockyard.
[1] As an undergraduate, his academic potential was clear to Arkell and his head of department,WBR King, and they persuaded Kingsley Dunham at Durham to offer House a lectureship before he had completed his final year examinations.
In Durham, House lectured, and began to research the Devonian ammonoids, working towards a PhD.
[5] He recognised the value of these fossils for stratigraphy, and realised that they could be used to test ideas about the timing and extent of changes in climate, sea level and environment in the Devonian period.
[1] House helped to establish the Ussher Society, for the study of the geology of southwest England, in 1962.