 Educated at Marlborough College, Ferrier started his career as an apprentice at the practice of Aston Webb, but left to start his own practice at the age of just 23.Ferrier spent much of his time in Continental Europe, especially in France, which influenced his work; an avowed Francophile, he published an English-French dictionary of technical terms.He later returned to London, and set up a practice based in Westminster with William Binnie, a former Deputy Director of Works at the Imperial War Graves Commission, in 1927.