He started out as a tax inspector. As a staff officer in the East India Command in WWII he began drawing cartoons for the forces' magazine, Jambo. Returning to England, he responded to an ad from the Amalgamated Press looking for artists in 1948. He was hired by editor Leonard Matthews to draw humour strips like "Professor Bloop" in Knock-Out, and filled in on a variety of strips for AP artist Hugh McNeill, including a Thunderbolt Jaxon comic for publication in Australia in 1949.