Began his apprenticeship at Swindon Works under William Dean in 1892. He received a series of promotions and in 1920 he was appointed locomotives Works manager. He was unfortunate that Collett was always one step in front of him careerwise. He became Chief Mechanical Engineer of the LMS in 1932 succeeding Henry Fowler and he started to unite factions of MR and LNWR within the company.