 Shand studied history at King's College, Cambridge, gaining his MA in 1914.Shand served in the First World War with the Royal Fusiliers regiment, and immediately afterwards, due to his fluent French and German, he was appointed as superintendent of all German prisoners' camps in France.Already in 1914 he had translated from German to English Arthur Schnitzler's play "Liebelei", under the title "Playing with Love".