Born at Wealdstone, Harrow on 1 October 1909, he graduated in philosophy at University College, London and trained for the ministry at Wesley House, Cambridge. During a year as Finch Scholar at Marburg University he studied Reformation ecclesiology. From 1952 to 1972 he was tutor in Church History and the History of Christian Doctrine at Richmond College. He contributed to An Approach to Christian Doctrine (1954) and to volume 2 of A History of the Methodist Church in Great Britain (1978) and translated Martin Buber's Two Types of Faith (1951) and two volumes of Martin Schmidt's 'Theological Biography' of John Wesley (1962, 1966). With his wife he ran a weekly Christian Fellowship at the Royal Star and Garter Home in Richmond.
An amateur musician and organist, he later suffered from increasing deafness through Menière's Disease. He wrote a booklet on Hymns and Hymnbooks (1979) and contributed to the Companion to Hymns and Psalms (1988). He was Chairman of the Methodist Church Music Society 1968-1984 and also chairman of the Hymn Society. In retirement he was a member of the Anglican/Methodist congregation in Dorking. He died in Epsom Hospital on 21 August 2001.