Borton was educated at Eton College and Sandhurst, before being commissioned into the King's Royal Rifle Corps in 1902 with whom he served in the Second Boer War.

[1] After further service with the regiment he became an observer with The Royal Flying Corps in France, where he broke his neck in three places when his aircraft crashed and was declared unfit.

Despite this he went to Gallipoli as a lieutenant commander in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, where he won the Distinguished Service Order serving with the RNAS Armoured Cars.

On 7 November 1917 at Palestine, Borton deployed his battalion for attack and at dawn led his companies against a strongly held position.

At a later stage he led a party of volunteers against a battery of field-guns in action at point-blank range, capturing the guns and the detachments.