He received a commission as 2nd Lieutenant in the Rifle Brigade on 2 September 1834 and was promoted to Captain on 2 September 1842, and to brevet Major on 26 September 1854. He served in South Africa with the Rifle Brigade after landing at Algoa Bay on 20 November 1846 and was promptly posted to the Kei where he took part in the Seventh Xhosa War, mainly in the Amatola Mountains. At the end of hostilities he was appointed Resident Magistrate of East London on 1 January 1849, a post which he held until June 1850 when he returned to England with his regiment. During this period he had a chance encounter with the explorer and painter, Thomas Baines, inviting him to his headquarters at Fort Glamorgan to see his own paintings which included many botanical illustrations. These paintings came to light in 1956 and were purchased by the Botanical Research Institute of Pretoria as a result of efforts by its librarian, Mary Gunn, following a suggestion by Baines' biographer John Peter Richard Wallis.