He was a Captain in the short-lived Duke of Bedford's Foot (1745–46) which was raised to deal with the Jacobite rising of 1745. He then joined Colonel the Hon. Charles Howard's Regiment of Foot (which later became the 19th Foot), transferring in 1749 to be a Lieutenant and Captain in the Coldstream Guards. With them he took part in the diversionary attacks on Cherbourg and St. Malo in 1758.