On 30 April 1932 he commissioned as a second lieutenant from the General List, Territorial Army into the Lincolnshire Regiment (with seniority backdated to 29 September 1930). Promoted to lieutenant on 29 September 1933, he served in the 2nd Battalion, seeing action in the Arab revolt in Palestine, before working as adjutant at the Regimental Depot in Lincoln between 1937 and 1939, and receiving a promotion to captain on 29 September 1938.