His father, Thomas Kingwell Skinner, was a butcher and could afford to pay for a private education at local schools.

Due to the harsh conditions in the field, Skinner's health suffered and from 1888, his work changed to office tasks.

He was commissioner of Crown lands and chief surveyor for Marlborough, then Hawke's Bay, and then Canterbury after which he retired to New Plymouth in 1919.

He supported the local library and is regarded as the founder of the museum in New Plymouth, Puke Ariki, through his donation of Māori artefacts.

Outside of Taranaki, Skinner was instrumental in having the gannet colony at Cape Kidnappers in Hawke's Bay protected as well as the pa site in Marlborough's Port Underwood where the Treaty of Waitangi had been signed in 1840.