 He was educated at Cheltenham College, later serving as a member of the College Council (1923–51) and President of the College (1939–51).He was a scholar of Wadham College, Oxford, earning first-class honours in the Final Honour School of Theology in 1908, and in 1910 being elected Denyer and Johnson Theological Scholar and receiving the Ellerton Essay Prize.He studied briefly at Wells Theological College in 1908 and was ordained deacon the same year, when he had just satisfied the canonical requirement for candidates for ordination to have attained twenty-three years of age.