 He was twice married, first to Katherine E Dunn in 1914, and after her death in 1925, second to Gertrude M Neville in 1937.He was educated privately, then at the Liverpool Institute (and possibly the University of Liverpool) and Grenoble University.However, he said that he learnt most while teaching English to foreign students in Sweden, Belgium, France and Italy, during the ten years preceding World War I.