 Born in England, Minton attended Oundle School and went on to complete a PhD degree in Metallurgy at the University of Cambridge.Although involved in studies of various species of birds, his main focus became the migratory waders.He became the founding chairman of the Wash Wader Ringing Group and was associated with the development of cannon-netting, especially as a means of catching large numbers of waders for banding and demographic studies.