He enlisted with the First AIF in August 1915, and after training at the NCO School at Mitcham served with the 12th Battalion in France, rising to rank of Captain, wounded in battle, then attached to the (British) 23rd Field Company, Royal Engineers, Calibration Section on Salisbury Plain.
He supervised the rebuilding of all railway bridges, station yards and locomotive depots, and the conversion of 220 miles (350 km) of track in the western division from narrow to broad gauge.
[2] He was made acting Railways Commissioner with the retirement of C. B. Anderson in 1946, then appointed to the substantive position on 16 January 1947, with a contracted term of seven years.
[3] He died of a heart complaint in the (private) Ru Rua hospital a week after taking sick leave.
His candid and cheerful manner endeared him to a vast number of friends, and his just administration earned him the esteem of every employe[e] of the railways".