He was born in Corris, Gwynedd, and attended schools in Machynlleth and Dolgellau before, in 1921, winning a scholarship to study physics at the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth.
After graduating first-class honours in physics in 1924, he was appointed to the research staff team in H.M.
(Wales) degree for important work on the measurement of dielectric and elastic constants under dynamic conditions, which he completed in 1937.
In 1938 he received a Leverhulme Research Fellowship award, enabling him to work in Cambridge, where he became one of the leading specialists in the study of 'stress waves'.
His writings include a series of radio lectures on modern science which he produced in the 1930s, and also a large number of articles which he contributed to scientific journals (e.g. 'Surveys in Mechanics'); of which ‘A Critical Study of the Hopkinson Pressure Bar’ (Trans.