 At the end of the war he stayed on in England to study at the Royal Academy of Music in London, gaining several prizes.Fernie returned to Wellington in the early 1950s as the director of music for Catholic Schools in the Archdiocese, a position he held until 1953 when he was called back to London as organist and choir instructor at Westminster Cathedral.After five acclaimed years of intensive organ playing, music making and teaching, he returned to New Zealand to become the Director of Music at St. Mary of the Angels where he supervised the building of the new organ constructed to his design.