he was a surgeon lieutenant to the east london (tower hamlets) royal engineers (volunteers) from april 1902. during the first world war, with the rank of captain, he was consulting urologist to king george v red cross hospital, king edward vii hospital for officers, and the star and garter home for disabled soldiers. treatment of wounded soldiers convinced him that there was a high chance of infection and death, when "spinal bladders" were treated by catheterisation. he promoted widely instead the early use of cystoscopy which dropped deaths from 80 to 20%. with his surgical skill he was able to reduce the mortality rate of prostate removal from the previous high rate down to 2%. he treated philip snowden, 1st viscount snowden, david lloyd george, robert baden powell, and the first lord french.