On 30 July 1942, Craigie, the ambassador, and the other embassy staff left Japan on board the Tatsuta Maru, returning to Britain via Lourenço Marques in East Africa (today Maputo, Mozambique).

[6] Busk also served in Iraq and from 1946-1948, he was acting head of mission from late 1947-early 1948 because the ambassador was unwell, this meant that he had responsibility for the Baghdad side of UK-Iraq relations which included the Iraqi monarch's plans to renew the Anglo-Iraqi Treaty of 1930, an intention which led to the Al-Wathbah uprising.

On December 4, in a wave of incidents in Caracas, terrorists launched a machine-gun attack on the embassy from a passing car, Lady Busk was inside the residence but was uninjured.

[9] Busk was a notable mountaineer, gaining membership of the Alpine Club while an undergraduate, after making the first winter ascent of the north face of Pic du Midi d'Ossau.

[13] He recounted some of his mountain activities in Iran in the Alpine Journal[14][15] and also those in Ethiopia, including the Batu Range which, as far as Busk could ascertain, had not previously been visited by any European party.

[16][17] Whilst stationed in Ethiopia he travelled by road from Addis Ababa to the Ruwenzori Mountains where, with Arthur Firmin, he climbed two previously unidentified peaks on the south ridge of Mount Stanley.