When World War I broke out in 1914, he tried to enlist for service, but was turned down on medical grounds due to an irregular heart beat, which was later found to be harmless.

This was a particularly urgent issue at the time, since large quantities of grain were being stored at the Cape as part of the war effort.

After his marriage he was transferred to the Cedara College of Agriculture in Natal where he worked on bees and wattle bagworm infestation.

In the relaxed railway schedules of the time, he sometimes found opportunities to collect new species from thorn trees during halts.

[1] During this period he found time to edit Nature Notes (1924–1931) and become one of the first people to make a radio broadcast in South Africa, in which he talked on scorpions (1925).

In 1952 he retired to his home in Hout Bay and did extensive research on the social behaviour of ants, bees and wasps which resulted in the publication of some books.

In 1953 he visited the UK where he spoke about his research work over the BBC and attended the Annual Congress of the British Association in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

He also found time to lecture in Medical Entomology at the University of Cape Town and serve as president of the then South African Association for the Advancement of Science.

He was an entertaining and unpretentious speaker with a pleasant sense of humour and a fine command of his field, and many South African youngsters of that generation had reason to appreciate his kindly and generous response to intelligent questions.