[1] He was born at Kinloss, Moray, Scotland and died at Swiss Cottage, London.
[2] He was an outstanding scholar, taking a double first in classics, and winning a succession of prizes and scholarships: the Porson Prize in 1885 and 1886, the Powis medal in 1886 and 1887, the Craven scholarship in 1887 and the Chancellor's Gold Medal in 1888.
[2] As a cricketer, he played as a lower-order right-handed batsman and a right-arm slow bowler both for Fettes and for Cambridge University.
He had some success as a bowler and in his first first-class match, against a team raised by C. I. Thornton, he bowled throughout the first innings and took five wickets for 52 runs in 46 overs.
[3] He continued to take wickets in his other matches across the next month, but had dropped out of the Cambridge team before the University Match against Oxford University and therefore did not win a Blue.