Of his sisters, one married the army surgeon William Brydon, one of the few European survivors of the 1842 retreat from Kabul, and another James Travers, who won the VC in the Indian Mutiny.

Joining the 66th Gurkha Regiment, he served in a number of small campaigns on the North West Frontier.

He was the first to reach and climb over the 8–9 feet high stockade, and successfully stormed it under heavy enemy fire.

He published an account of his experiences in Hindu Koh: Wanderings and Wild Sports on and beyond the Himalayas (1889).

[1] He subsequently lived in Fortrose, Ross-shire where he died on 15 April 1903, aged 71, and was buried in Rosemarkie churchyard.