The son of Pierre & Emilie of Bagatelle Farm, St Saviour. Before the war he served as a farm labourer and lived with his parents at Georgetown, St Helier. He lost two brothers killed in the war, Henry who died in 1916 in the Battle of Jutland and Arthur who lost his life while serving in the Army in March 1918. In November 1918 a sister also died in the Spanish Flu outbreak.

While serving in Ireland with the Jersey Company, he trained in signals, later qualifying as a First Class Signaller at Aldershot. After going to the front in December 1915, he served with the Jersey Company through 1916 until wounded in the fighting at Guillemont by in September by an explosive bullet to the arm. Treated in hospitals in Birmingham and London, he may not have returned to active service until March 1918 when he was posted to 2nd Battalion, Royal Irish Rifles.

In November 1918 he was admitted to a hospital in Boulogne with influenza (Newspaper reports at the time state he died at this time). Demobilised from the Army in March 1919.