He was the son of Captain Alexander Nairne, a military officer in the East India Company.

[1] Due to sickness he was only present for two and a half terms at Addiscombe, instead of the usual four, and this prevented him joining the Bengal Engineers.

[3] He went on to serve as a Horse Battery Commander with the Peshawar Valley Field Force during the Second Afghan War from 1878 to 1880.

[4] In 1882 he became colonel of the depot staff of the horse artillery, and in 1885 commandant of the school of gunnery at Shoeburyness for the next two years.

[1] His sister, Helen Catherine Nairne, who was born on 1 September 1843, was the mother of Sir Frederick Arnold-Baker.