Born at Kilkeel, Co Down he received his medical education at Trinity College and the Adelaide Hospital, Dublin, the London Hospital, Guy's Hospital and Vienna. Entering the regular Naval Medical Service he reached the rank of Surgeon-Captain and acted as a surgeon at various times at RN Hospitals at Haslar, Malta and Plymouth. He also served afloat in HMS *Hood* and HMS *Endymion*, and in HMS *Skipjack* a fishery protection vessel off the Irish coast. He was created OBE for his services in the first world war. After retirement he served for nearly ten years as a ship's surgeon in the merchant navy, lived for a time in Kent, and then practised at Portstewart, Co Derry, moving in 1944 to Clontarf, Dublin, where he died on 22 September 1962, and was buried at sea off Northern Ireland with naval honours.