Littler was promoted to lieutenant on 29 November 1800 and served during 1804–05 in Lord Lake's army during the Second Anglo-Maratha War. Littler participated in the 1811 expedition that captured Java from the French and was promoted to captain on 16 December 1812. He returned to India in 1816 and served in Lord Hastings' army as a sub-assistant commissary-general until 1824. He was promoted to major on 22 September 1824.