After war service in the Royal New Zealand Artillery, he graduated MA from Wellington in 1948 and won a Rhodes Scholarship to Magdalen College, Oxford University in England, where his preparation of an edition of the Ormulum was supervised by J.R.R. Tolkien.
After war service in the Royal New Zealand Artillery, he graduated MA from Wellington in 1948 and won a Rhodes Scholarship to Magdalen College, Oxford University in England, where he was tutored by C.S. Lewis. His preparation of an edition of the Ormulum was supervised by J.R.R. Tolkien.