The son of a Judge, he was educated at King's College School and read history at Balliol College, Oxford. He began training as an architect, but this was interrupted by the Great War, after which he trained as a solicitor, qualifying in 1923. He was immediately appointed Assistant Manager of the UK Chamber of Shipping, becoming Deputy in 1938 and General Manager from 1941 until 1950. From 1933 he began painting, studying art in both London and St Ives, and exhibited at a number of leading art societies.

He also designed a poster of Polperro for the Great Western Railway Company. A devout Catholic, he and his wife, Megan Rhys, painted the panels of Christ and the Twelve Apostles and the four Doctors of the Church which used to hang on the front of the organ loft at St Ives RC Church. In the 1950s he exhibited at St Ives Show Days from the Piazza Studios.  When he died he had just completed a new translation of the Greek poet Sappho being printed by Guido MORRIS; he passed away the night before the advance copy was delivered.