 He was educated at preparatory schools in Cheltenham and Eastbourne before going on to Wellington College in 1928.He read History at New College, Oxford, graduating with a first class honours degree, and he also won the Gibbs Prize.For a year thereafter, planning a career as a civil servant, he studied French and German and travelled throughout Europe, then in 1937, aged 22, he was employed at the Colonial and Dominions Office, joining the BBC four years later.