 After curacies in Eton and Chatham he embarked on a career that was to take him from pastoral (Incumbencies in Oxfordshire and Yorkshire) to administrative (Diocesan Educational Inspector) posts before a steady rise up the ecclesiastical ladder.He was successively Rural Dean of Silkstone, Rector of Barnsley, and Archdeacon of Halifax.In July 1902 he was appointed an honorary Canon of Wakefield Cathedral.