As a member of the West Yorkshire Regiment in 1941, he was injured at Cheren in Eritrea, and subsequently awarded the Military Cross.

Rieu served as headmaster of Simon Langton Grammar School for Boys in Canterbury from 1955 until 1977.

While acknowledging his father's "towering skill", Rieu made amendments to some undue embroidery of phrase and Greek manners, disdain for anonymous gods, formulaic abuse and modernistic prose.

"[2] When he and Dr Peter Jones took up the task of revising E. V. Rieu's translation of The Odyssey, they determined to retain (and in places even enhance) its charm.

Although keen to maintain Homer's formulaic construction, he revised the archaic preliminaries used prior to speeches.