Although he was essentially self-taught as a composer, he studied piano, cello and harmony at the Royal Manchester College of Music, where his teachers were Thomas Keighley, Frank Merrick and Carl Fuchs.
After training as a teacher, he became art master at Tettenhall College, Wolverhampton. Whilst there, as a pacifist, he joined the Peace Pledge Union. In the Second World War, he registered as a conscientious objector, with a condition that he continue teaching.
He taught composition at the Royal Manchester College of Music from 1947 to 1973, where his pupils included David Ellis, John Golland, John McCabe, John Ogdon and Ronald Stevenson.
Between 1986 and 1993 he wrote a three volume autobiography. He continued to create art and music until his nineties.
He died in Bowdon, Greater Manchester, in 1999.