Before the First World War, he lived for a time at Dymock in Gloucestershire. In 1922, they gave him the job of Professor of English at the University of Leeds. In 1929 he moved on to the University of London, and in 1935 to the University of Oxford. He wrote many poems, that were put together in a book called 'Poems' (1930). In the same year he wrote his most important poem, "The Sale of Saint Thomas" in six Acts. He was the brother of the architect Patrick Abercrombie, and his son was the scientist Michael Abercrombie.