His father, Algernon Hyde Villiers, was killed in action in 1917 during World War I.
Villiers was educated at St Cyprian's School, Eton and New College, Oxford, before joining the Grenadier Guards in 1936.
He became lieutenant-colonel during World War II, served with the Special Operations Executive from 1943 to 1945 and was awarded the MC.
[3] He married firstly Pamela Constance Flower and had two sons, and secondly Belgian resistance heroine Countess Marie-José de la Barre d’Erquelinnes and had two daughters.
His daughter Diana Villiers Negroponte is adjunct professor of law at Fordham University.