In August 1891, when he was aged 27, Snowden severely injured his back in a cycling accident in Devon and was paralyzed from the waist down. He learned to walk again with the aid of sticks within two years. His Inland Revenue job was kept open for him for two years following the accident; however, owing to his condition, he decided to resign from the civil service. While he was convalescing at his mother's house at Cowling he began to study socialist theory and history.