He was educated at Marlborough College and Trinity College, Cambridge.
He practised as chartered accountant and solicitor until the start of World War I.
He served with the Coldstream Guards but after being wounded on the Somme he became superintendent of physical and bayonet training at the Aldershot Command.
After the war he went into business rather than return to the Bar and became secretary of Lever Brothers Limited; he retired in 1946.
Between 1934 and 1967 he was a trustee of the Lady Lever Art Gallery and Collections at Port Sunlight.