After wartime service in the Royal Navy he studied linguistics and music at the University of Leeds; then he was able to acquire some knowledge of the Cornish language from R. Morton Nance and A. S. D. Smith but was disappointed that it was no longer spoken. He started a campaign for the revival of Cornish as a spoken language.
After serving in the Royal Navy during wartime, he pursued studies in linguistics and music at the University of Leeds; however, his efforts to learn Cornish were hindered by its decline as a spoken language. Despite this setback, he launched a campaign to restore Cornish as a spoken language.