[8][3] He was admitted to Peterhouse, Cambridge, however undertook a mandatory one-year term of military service between 1918 and 1919, at the rank of Lieutenant in the Royal Engineers (Signals).
Among his many cartographic roles would be to a participant in a number of Hydrographic Surveys, which culminated in data changes being recorded and lead to revisions to Nautical charts and monitoring the Antarctic Convergence.
Part of the investigation involved the last privately sponsored Antarctic missions, known as the British Graham Land expedition of 1934–1937.
Under Vice-Admiral John Augustine Edgell, Atherton was appointed as the Assistant Superintendent, Chart Production and Supplies Branch from 1937 and quickly went through the ranks.
[11] During World War II he worked closely with Sir Eric Seal,[12] who had been Principal Private Secretary to Winston Churchill until he was released for special duties with the Admiralty.
He was praised by Arthur Marder, an American historian specialising in the Maritime history of the United Kingdom from 1880 to 1945 for his cartographic expertise.
[18] His only son, John also attended Whitgift School, however pursued a different career and graduated as a surgeon from the University of Edinburgh Medical School, followed by post-graduate studies and the Edinburgh surgical Fellowship thereafter, prior to moving to Samoa with Viopapa Annandale-Atherton, whom he married in 1965.