Tony enlisted into the Somerset Light Infantry at Birmingham on 23rd December 1937. Following 6 months training at Jellelabad Barracks, Taunton, he was posted the 1st Battalion Somerset Light Infantry at Colchester where he remained until October 1938. He transferred to the East Lancashire Regiment, at Liverpool on 17th October 1938 and was posted to Palace Barracks Hollywood, Northern Ireland.

On the outbreak of the war he was posted to Squires Gate holiday camp near Blackpool which became a recruit centre and shortly afterwards he was posted to the 4th Battalion, a Territorial Army Unit, Newcastle.

In early 1940 he was moved to Marlborough and thence to the British Expeditionary Force in France. They advanced into Belgium but were forced to withdraw back to the UK on 2nd June 1940 and Tony sailed on the last destroyer from Dunkirk. He landed at Dover and then proceeded to a college in Durham. His Battalion then moved to Oxford and he was eventually moved back to Northern Ireland in 1942. He was then attached to 30th Battalion Royal Irish Fusiliers and in January 1943 he was posted to India as a Lancashire Fusilier and then to the North Staffordshire as reinforcement to The Arakan. He fought the Burma Campaign and at the end of the war the Battalion moved to Dinapore.

His next move was to the small arms depot at sauger where he taught Caders prior to returning to the UK for demobilisation in June 1946. Tony then found employment as a bus/tram driver in Blackpool until October 1950when he rejoined the Army as a permanent staff instructor in the Royal Artillery. He was posted to 37 Heavy Anti-Aircraft Regiment Royal Artillery until 1955 when he moved to Bovington as an instructor where he remained until he was discharged in 1959.

Following his Army service, Tony was employed as a police officer with the UK Atomic Energy Commission until his retirement in 1984. Tony joined the Royal Hospital Chelsea 6th January 2003 and undertook the duties of a ward Sergeant for a number of years and was always very keen to volunteer for various trips out. He was also a fanatical Liverpool Football Club Supporter and always wore his Liverpool shirt underneath his Scarlet when attending the Chelsea home fixtures!