[2] He was promoted to captain in the West Yorkshire Regiment on 4 April 1935[3] and attended the Staff College, Camberley from 1936 to 1937, transferring to the Royal Irish Fusiliers in 1937, and seeing service in Palestine from 1938 to 1939.

[5] From November 1939 to June 1941, during the Second World War, Bastyan served as a GSO II in Palestine with the Royal Irish Fusiliers[4] and was mentioned in despatches in March 1941.

[6] He served as assistant quarter-master general in the Middle East from July 1941 to May 1942, subsequently as deputy director of the Higher Commander's Course from May to October of that year.

[12] After the war, Bastyan, after serving as an instructor at the Imperial Defence College,[13] became Chief of Staff at British Army of the Rhine in October 1946 (which involved looking after the logistics for the Berlin airlift between 1946 and 1948).

[16] Bastyan's term in office in Tasmania was relatively uneventful, though he did have to deal, after the 1969 State election, with a deadlocked House of Assembly where both the ALP and Liberals had the same number of seats.