Entering his father's Sunderland ship-owning and coal-exporting business in 1890, he became a partner in 1907 and subsequently inheriting the business. A Unionist, he was Mayor of Sunderland 1920-1922 and its Member of Parliament, 1922 to 1929, being knighted in 1929, In 1930 he became the Chairman of the British Coal Exporting Federation and was also a director of the Sunderland and South Shields Water Company, a River Wear Commissioner and Chairman of Sunderland Association Football Club. A Wesleyan, he was a member of St. John's. Ashbrooke.