Alfred attended several kindergarten schools before progressing to Yeovil School after which it was presumed that he would enter into the family business. However he particularly enjoyed his studies and wished to further them, to that end he applied to study at the Merchant Venturers College (which would become the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Bristol in 1909). He spent one year working for a local architect and engineer and studying for the London Matriculation exam which he passed in the summer of 1908 and started at the college in the autumn of that year.
