[2]: 18 Born in Paris, Singer was raised at Oldway Mansion in Paignton, Devon, England, and educated at Newton Abbot Proprietary College.

At the urging of Lady Randolph Churchill, he donated the use of his house at Oldway in Paignton to be used by the American Women's War Relief Fund as a military hospital.

[6][7] Deciding to build one in Palm Beach, after consulting with Mizner, he bought a large parcel of land on which the "Touchstone Convalescent Club"[8] was to be built.

[4]: 160  He planned on what became Singer Island a hotel, the Blue Heron, designed by Mizner, to be the most luxurious ever built, as part of a large new resort.

[4]: 215  An "aerial ferry" would connect it to the mainland, with 12 cable cars 136 feet above the water,[2]: 45  since West Palm Beach refused to permit a bridge.

[4]: 233 The stock market crash of 1929 further depleted his funds, and he spent his final years quietly with his wife and former nurse Joan Balsh in his Moorish house (since demolished) in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, France.