He became head teacher of Welton Council School (now Welton Primary School in Midsomer Norton). In 1936 was elected to the NUT Executive. In 1942, Ernest Bevin, Minister of Labour, invited him to join a committee enquiring into the reasons for poor recruitment into coalmining. In April 1943 he was inducted as President of the NUT, a post he held for a year. By 1946 he was chairman of Radstock Urban District Council and also a magistrate. In 1947 he became General Secretary of the National Union of Teachers, a post he held until 1970. He was also the first President of the World Confederation of Organisations of the Teaching Profession. In 1955 he received his knighthood.