Born on 20 January 1841, George Elphinstone Erskine was educated at Bedford School. He entered the British Indian Army in 1857 and served in India during the Indian Mutiny, between 1857 and 1858. He served on the Oudh Commission between 1863 and 1889 and was appointed commissioner to investigate landlord-tenant relations in Oudh State in 1883. He was appointed to the commission for the amalgamation of the governments of the North-Western Provinces and Oudh State in 1889.