He studied the organ with Walter Williams of Bury and Edward Bairstow at York Minster.
Whilst at Lincoln he was Music Master at South Park High School, Conductor of the Great Burton Choral Society, and Lecturer in Music for the Extra-Mural department of the University of Nottingham.
During World War II he served with the Royal Army Service Corps, 1941–1942 and was a Major in the Royal Army Educational Corps in the Indian Command lecturing on music, 1942–1946.
His eminent pupil Harrison Oxley was his Assistant until leaving for Christ Church, Oxford in 1951.
He founded the Birmingham Bach Society in 1947[4] In 1958, Willis Grant was invited to become the Stanley Hugh Baddock Professor of Music at Bristol University, and he held this post until his retirement in 1972.