He was born on 29 May 1897 at Sevenoaks and educated at Beckenham County School and King's College, London. From 1919 to 1946 he taught English at Selhurst Grammar School, Croydon, where Malcolm Muggeridge was one of his pupils. After World War II he was Principal of a teacher training college at Drake Hall. Stone, Staffs and then of Sefton Park College, Liverpool. He was an essayist and skilful parodist and, under various pen-names, contributed to Punch, John o' London's Weekly, the Methodist Recorder and a question and answer feature in the Times Literary Supplement. His obituary in The Times spoke of him as 'a valiant champion for the purity of the English language'. Among his books on this topic were Good English (1951), Better English (1953), and The Best English (1960),and also The Wesleys and the English Language (1957). He served on the Connexional Local Preachers Committee and Studies Board and on the ministerial Candidates Selection Committee. He died at Banstead on 30 October 1956.