In 1759, his father raised the 85th Regiment of Foot and Pulteney became its lieutenant-colonel. He took part with his regiment in the Capture of Belle Île in February 1761 and moved in November to Portugal. On his return to England in 1763, he died of fever in Madrid, unmarried and childless and was buried in Westminster Abbey two months later. His father died only a year later and the titles became extinct.