he held various appointments at edinburgh royal infirmary on lauriston place and was elected a fellow of the royal college of surgeons of edinburgh in 1903. in 1906 he was appointed honorary assistant surgeon at the deaconess hospital in the south of the city. in 1908 he was given a parallel position at the royal infirmary. in the first world war he served as a major in the royal army medical corps, serving in salonica 1916 to 1918. although going into semi-retirement in 1938 he was brought into full operational use in the second world war when he was asked to run the surgical wards of edinburgh royal infirmary.