He attended
Stonyhurst College and
Manchester University (LLB Hons) and studied law at
Gray's Inn, where he was
called to the bar in 1930. He was in private practice from 1930 to 1937 before accepting the post as a Crown Counsel in Northern Nigeria. He afterwards served as Attorney-General of Northern Rhodesia (1951–56) and of the Federation of Nigeria (1956–60) before serving two years as Federal Justice of the Federal Supreme Court. He then took the post of
Chief Justice of Nyasaland (1962–64) and was appointed
Chief Justice of Gibraltar the following year. He was knighted in 1963. At the time of his death, he was the second to last person originally appointed as “
King's Counsel”, before the accession of
Elizabeth II. He died in 2006, a month before his centenary. He never married. ==References==