His first employment was as Assistant Mycologist at Long Ashton Research Station where he worked from 1934 to 1936. In 1936 he began at ICI's facility at Jealott's Hill before moving in the late 1930s to their Butterwick Research Laboratories (later renamed Akers) as Mycologist and in 1946 was promoted to Head of Microbiology. He served in this role for ICI until 1961 and spent his final two years with them as Associate Research Manager. During this period, in 1962, he was on a team which discovered new antibiotics produced by fungi.