 He served in West Africa and Burma during World War II being given an emergency commission in 1941 and reaching the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel by the end of the War.He later re-joined the colonial service, becoming Secretary to the Prime Minister of the Federation of Nigeria in 1957 in the run-up to independence before moving on to be Governor of British Honduras in 1961, where he arrived in the aftermath of serious hurricane damage.He retired in 1966.