 Jim Bottomley was educated at King's College School and Trinity College, Cambridge; he was President of the Cambridge Union Society in 1940, closing the debates to prevent proctoral censorship.In World War II he served in the Inns of Court Regiment, RAC, 1940–46 and was seriously wounded at Pont de Vère near Flers in Normandy in August 1944, requiring two years of surgery to repair his jaw.He joined the Dominions Office in 1946, which became the Commonwealth Relations Office, and then the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, serving in London, Pretoria (1948–50), Karachi (1953–55), Washington DC for three years before the UN in New York(1955–59) and Kuala Lumpur (1963–67).