He entered the army as ensign in the Coldstream guards in 1804, and served with that corps in the north of Germany in 1805–6, at Copenhagen in 1807, in the Peninsula and south of France from 1809 to 1814, excepting the winters of 1810 and 1811, and in the Waterloo campaign, being present at the passage of the Douro, the battles of Talavera, Salamanca, and Vittoria, the capture of Madrid, the sieges of Ciudad Rodrigo, Badajos, Burgos, and San Sebastian, the passages of the Nive, Nivelle, and Adour, the investment of Bayonne, the battles of Quatre Bras and Waterloo, and the occupation of Paris. When a brevet-major he served as military secretary to the Duke of Richmond in Canada in 1818–20, and as deputy adjutant-general in the West Indies from 1820 to 1825. While with his battalion of the Coldstreams in Canada, as lieutenant-colonel and brevet-colonel, he commanded the troops in the Lower Province during the rebellion of 1838. He retired on half-pay in 1843.