He secured second place in the I.M.S. examination, among the eminent group which included T. A. Hughes, the physiologist, Clive Newcomb, the research chemist, and Henry Shortt, the parasitologist.

In 1913, he was seconded from military duty as naturalist to the Indo-Russian Pamir triangulation expedition. In 1914 he went on service during the First World War and saw action in East Africa, France, Mesopotamia, and the