The son of Edward Herbert Bond and his wife, Olive Bessie Sartin, Bond was born in Marlow, Buckinghamshire, where he attended Sir William Borlase's Grammar School from 1947 to 1954.
He was raised in Buckinghamshire where his father was the gardener for the military historian Sir Basil Liddell Hart.
[1] From 1952 to 1954, Bond served in the Royal Artillery, being commissioned a second lieutenant in the British Army.
He was made a Fellow of King's College London in 1996 and served as Liddell Hart Lecturer.
Bond served as a member of council of the Society for Army Historical Research and as President of the British Commission for Military History.