He was educated at Geelong College and Gordon Technical College, taking art classes part-time with J. R. Tranthim-Fryer (died 13 July 1928)[2] and Charles Richardson, later conducting classes himself.
His elder brother, Albert Naples Anderson, enlisted in December 1914, fought at Gallipoli and was wounded at Lone Pine.
He was repatriated, then in January 1917 re-enlisted with the 8th Light Horse in Egypt and was killed in action in April 1917.
[3] Anderson served in France as a lieutenant in the 23rd Battalion, and in 1918 was attached to the Australian War Records Section, London, along with sculptors W. Leslie Bowles and C. Web Gilbert, and toured battlefields in France, Egypt and Palestine, making sketches and notes for later reference.
[8] They had a son Rod Anderson and daughters Lucie Cleary and Joy Bleakley.