His father was physician Thomas Renton Elliott who would later be appointed Professor of Medicine at University College London, while his mother came from the wealthy McCosh Lanarkshire Iron and Coal Company of Coatbridge.

Elliott saw active service in the Second World War as an officer in the 2nd Battalion Scots Guards.

He joined up in August 1943, and on 11 September that year led a platoon in an attack on a tobacco factory in Salerno.

[2] He later wrote two books based on his experiences: Us and Them: a study of group consciousness (1986), and Esprit de Corps (1996).

On completing his studies at Edinburgh in 1950, Elliott was called to the Bar of England and Wales at the Inner Temple, and admitted to the Faculty of Advocates in Scotland.