 He was educated at Westminster School and admitted on 24 January 1849 to Trinity College, Cambridge, matriculating in 1855, he was awarded MA graduation in 1858.During an adventurous youth, he toured the western United States and was present at the sack of the Summer Palace during the Second Opium War.On 20 April 1858, he was commissioned a lieutenant in the Dorsetshire Yeomanry and promoted to lieutenant-colonel on 19 July 1866.