 He was Temporary Chaplain to the Forces 1917-18 and Chaplain to the Royal Air Force 1918-19.He had previously served in the Great War with the YMCA.As a TCF,he was based at Rugeley campand,when he transferred into the RAF,he was posted to an Aerial Gunnery School at Turnberry in AyrshireIn 1920 he returned to Oxford as Senior Proctor (1920–21) and Principal of St Edmund Hall (1920–28; Honorary Fellow 1942), assuming office at the age of just thirty-five.