He attended the Tiffin School there before going to the University of London graduating BSc in 1922 and receiving his doctorate (DSc) in 1930.
He then received a post at the University of Edinburgh rising to Reader in Biochemistry in the Physiology Department.
In 1927, in experiments on frog muscles in Cambridge, he discovered the release (on passing an electrical current) of a previously unknown substance which he labelled phosphagen.
His proposers were Sir Edward Albert Sharpey-Schafer, Alfred Joseph Clark, and Henry Dryerre.
During the Second World War he served in the Gas Identification Service (part of the Edinburgh Civil Defence team).