Punch went to Peace Avenue school, a temporary school. In 1914 when he was 16, he enrolled in mechanical engineering at the University of Alberta, but when war broke out he quit to enlist as an infantryman in the Canadian Army, and served with the 196th Western Universities Battalion for one year as a company clerk. While in Europe he transferred to the Royal Flying Corps. Punch transferred from the 21st Reserve Unit to the RFC School of Instruction at the Acton Aerodrome, northwest of London.