Born near Hanover Square in London[1] to Liberal Party MP Francis Dyke Acland and Eleanor Margaret Cropper, Geoffrey was the younger brother of Richard Acland, who later became a Common Wealth Party and Labour Party MP.

He studied at Rugby School, Trinity College, Cambridge, and the University of Grenoble.

[2] During the Second World War, he served with the Border Regiment, rising to become a Captain.

[3] After the war, Acland became joint managing director of some paper mills,[2] and he stood unsuccessfully for the Liberal Party in Westmorland at each election from 1945 to 1959.

[4] Acland married Winifred Julian Dorothy Fothergill in 1932, and they were the parents of six children.