 He was then in the ranks of the territorial service during 1922 and 1923 before being commissioned into the Otago Regiment in 1923.Before the Second World War, Josland was a captain in the Twenty-fifth (Wellington) Battalion of the New Zealand Territorials.He went to the War as Second-in-Command of D Company in the Twenty-fifth Battalion (Third Echelon) of the Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force.