 London curacies were interrupted by war service as an army chaplain in East Africa, but on his return he rose rapidly in the church hierarchy.From 1919 until 1924 he was Chaplain and Lecturer at the "Ordination Test School", in Knutsford, and "Examining Chaplain" to the Bishop of Llandaff but his big breakthrough came with his appointment to be the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Private Secretary, a post he was to hold under two separate incumbents until his elevation to the rank of Bishop in 1931.He was appointed Bishop of Coventry, and served the diocese well especially during the terrible bombing of the city during World War II .