Hopton was commissioned into the 79th Foot. He fought at the Siege of Sevastapol during the Crimean War and at the Siege of Lucknow during the Indian Mutiny and then served with the Connaught Rangers during the 9th Xhosa War of 1877 to 1878. He went on to be Colonel of the Connaught Rangers and was appointed Lieutenant Governor of Jersey in 1895. During the Second Boer War he had some difficulty maintaining order on Jersey in the face of Pro-Boer attitudes of some of the French Islanders.