After passing out from Sandhurst, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant into the Grenadier Guards on 29 January 1925. During the Second World War, from 1942 to 1944, he was a General Staff Officer (GSO) with the Guards Armoured Division. He was then Commanding Officer of the 2nd Battalion, Grenadier Guards, in North-West Europe. In 1945 he assumed command of the 8th Infantry Brigade in Germany and Palestine. From 1946 to 1947 he was commander of the 1st Guards Brigade, also in Palestine, during the Palestine Emergency.