He joined the British Army in 1918 as a cadet, but resigned a year later to study medicine.He played rugby for Cambridge University, including Blues in 1919 and 1920, and won 7 caps for Ireland in 1924,1925 and 1926.
[2] He worked for the Red Cross in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp after its liberation by Allied troops.
He was instrumental in bringing five orphaned children from the camp to Ireland in 1947, and adopted two of them, Edith and Zoltan Zinn.
He met a Dutch nurse in Bergen Belsen, Han Hogerzeil, whom he later married, after divorcing his first wife.
The book Straight On (1947), with Han Hogerzeil, whom he later married, recounts the liberation of Belsen.