He was commissioned as an Honorary Lieutenant on 15 October 1914 in the Indian Expeditionary Force during the First World War, initially as part of the Dehra Dun Brigade, and later the Garhwal Brigade. He was posted as a staff officer to the general officer commanding. On 22 June 1915, he was mentioned in dispatches, for his role in the Battle of Neuve Chapelle. He was injured on the Western Front in 1915 and spent the rest of the war in India. He later served as Military Secretary to Bhupinder Singh of Patiala.