 In 1927, when a new Diocese of Derby was formed, he became in turn canon at Derby Cathedral and examining chaplain to Edmund Pearce, Bishop of Derby.In churchmanship he was an Anglo-Catholic.Politically interested in social justice and a priest who preferred work in slum communities and with youth, he was a member of the Christian Social Union from 1907, and from the time of the general strike of 1926 a member of the Labour Party.