 He excelled at the college under the tutelage of Seamus Stoupe and Newton Penpraze.His contemporaries included Romeo Toogood, Harry Cooke Knox, George MacCann, and Colin Middleton.In 1927 he won the coveted Dunville Scholarship which enabled him to attend the Slade School of Art in London, where he studied painting and sculpture under the celebrated Henry Tonks, who greatly influenced his development as a draughtsman.