He was educated at Eton and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, and was commissioned in the Scots Guards in 1890. He served in the Boer War. In 1905, his father was created a Baronet. That same year the family assumed by Royal licence the additional surname and arms of Morrison in 1905, for Charles' mother, Mary Wilhelmina Morrison, the daughter and heiress of Royal Navy officer John Morrison.