 During World War II, he was a temporary civil servant in London from 1939 to 1942, then Personal Staff Officer to "Bomber Harris" in RAF Bomber Command at High Wycombe from 1942 to 1945.His final duties there involved justifying Harris's controversial bombing strategy to politicians and the public.His death in 1958 was attributed by college rumour to suicide but was in fact due to a cerebral haemorrhage.