With the outbreak of World War II, he joined the Royal Navy as a radio operative on the North Atlantic convoys and later in 1943 he was posted to Sicily and then to Alexandria.
The group included architects Peter Gilbey, Robert Maguire, Keith Murray (an ecclesiastical designer), John Newton (Burles, Newton & Partners), Patrick Nuttgens, George Pace, Patrick Reyntiens (stained glass artist), Austin Winkley, Lance Wright, as well as Catholic priest and theologian Charles Davis.
[4] Openly and eloquently critical of Basil Spence's Coventry Cathedral, what was needed, he said, were 'functional structures designed to serve and articulate the communal activities which provide the one valid reason for building churches at all'.
[7] Soon after, in 1961, 'Church Building Today' was founded, a magazine edited by two of the central figures in the NCRG - the architects Robert Macguire and Keith Murray.
He spent his later years in Lincoln where he was made a canon in 1987 and took an active interest in the cathedral, bringing together 40 international conservators and art historians to help decide how best to preserve the west front.