Raised in the Jersey Industrial School. Prior to the war he lived at the Victoria Club, St Helier.

Called 'Bert', he served at the front with the Jersey Company throughout 1916 and into 1917. In June 1917 he was awarded a Divisional Parchment for bravery. By 1918 he was serving as a Lance Sergeant in the Royal Dublin Fusiliers, having possibly transferred to that regiment when 7th Royal Irish Rifles disbanded in October 1917. In the autumn of 1918, he won the Military Medal near the french town of Le Cateau for charging an enemy machine gun post and capturing its entire crew.