[1] A grandson of Sir Evelyn Wood, Fanshawe was born to (later Lieutenant General Sir) Hew Dalrymple Fanshawe and Anna Paulina Mary Wood in British India on 25 May 1895.
[1][3] After being educated at The King's School, Canterbury and attending the Royal Military College, Sandhurst,[4] Fanshawe was commissioned into the Queen's Bays in 1914 and saw service in France, Palestine, Mesopotamia, Persia, Russia and Syria during the First World War; among his assignments during this period was Aide-de-camp to his father, who was General Officer Commanding the British Cavalry Corps (1915).
[5] Fanshawe retired from the army in 1945, whereupon he became the UN Relief and Rehabilitation Administration Director in the British Zone of Germany (1945–1948).
Subsequently, he was Director of the International Refugee Organisation in the British Zone of Germany from 1948 to 1952.
In 1952 he was attached to the Dominion Countries UN Organisation Mission,[6] and in 1960 was High Sheriff of Northamptonshire.