Zanzibar Revolution
Acland attended Staff College, Camberley and was promoted to major on 22 December 1961. He then took part in the combats of the Mau Mau Uprising in Kenya. Following the Zanzibar Revolution in 1964, he was appointed brigade major of 4th Guards Brigade in the British Army of the Rhine and was promoted to lieutenant-colonel in 1967. He became commanding officer of the 2nd Battalion, Scots Guards in 1968 and led it in the Northern Ireland riots of August 1969.