The fourth child in a family of three sons and three daughters, he was educated at Winchester College and Christ Church, Oxford.

[3] He maintained a connection to both the MI6 and the Central Intelligence Agency during this period, and operated the left-of-centre propaganda magazine Encounter via IPC from 1964.

He decided to override the editorial independence of the Mirror and wrote and instructed to be published a front-page article calling on Wilson to be removed by some sort of extra-parliamentary action.

[5] He refused and was dismissed by the board on 30 May,[6] leaving command to his deputy, Hugh Cudlipp, who later expanded IPC's business in the United States.

He appears in Netflix's The Crown in episode five of season 3 ("Coup"), portrayed by actor Rupert Vansittart.