He was born in Liverpool on 13 January 1907, the son of Charles William Mitton (1873-1959; e.m. 1897). Educated at Manchester University, he was appointed Assistant Tutor at Headingley College in 1930 and after some years in circuit became NT Tutor at Handsworth College in 1951, becoming Principal in 1955. He was largely responsible for the successful outcome of the negotiations with the Queen's College in 1970, when he retired. His main publications are: The Epistle to the Ephesians, Origin and Purpose (1951), The Formation of the Pauline Corpus (1954), and commentaries on Mark (1956), James (1973) and Ephesians (1978). He was editor of The Expository Times from 1965 to 1976 and was awarded an honorary DD by the University of Aberdeen in 1964. He died in Birmingham on 7 March 1998.