Husband of first, in New Zealand Helen Davis; they had two daughters. and he married secondly, in 1970, Veronica Hurt (nee Whigham).

Graduated LLB in 1940 from Canterbury University and became the youngest New Zealander to be awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford

Served with Rear Admiral Sir Gerald Dickens in North Africa, Bizerta and later in both Brussels and the Hague

Called to the bar in 1948 he returned to New Zealand and practised as a barrister and solicitor then crown prosecutor in Wanganui.

Left New Zealand and joined the Colonial Service from 1957 as Crown Counsel in Nairobi, Kenya and he continued working in Africa, mostly Kenya until 1966.

After returning to England with a short period as an academic director he became involved in industrial tribunals. It was this work for which he was knighted in 1984 AWMM