 Alastair Davidson had married (Mildred) Valentine Blomfield, daughter of Colonel Frederick William Osborne, Royal Australian Artillery, of Sydney, Australia.Davidson was born at Chatham, Kent, where his father was commissioning a new vessel.Davidson served as a naval officer and naval attache at the British Embassy in Moscow before establishing himself as an Aberdeenshire farmer  He was educated at the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth and Downing College, Cambridge, where he studied for a Certificate of Competence in Russian.