 He was raised at the family home of Goodwood House before being sent with his elder brother, Charles, to the United States at the outbreak of World War II.He returned to England in 1944 to join Eton and later won a scholarship to read History at Worcester College, Oxford.After graduation and National Service with the King's Royal Rifle Corps, he joined HM Foreign Service in 1954 and became Private Secretary to the British Ambassador to the United States, Sir Harold Caccia in 1957, for which he was awarded the LVO.