The son of William Frank Tory and Edith Wreghitt, Tory was educated at King Edward VII School, Sheffield and Queens’ College, Cambridge, where he took a Double First in French and German and was a contemporary of Donald Maclean.

[1][2] In 1957, Tory was appointed as the first British High Commissioner to Malaya, serving there until 1963.

Based in Kuala Lumpur, he wrote to Saville Garner in October 1962 about Tunku Abdul Rahman's views post-Malayan emergency.

Tunku believed that there was a Communist conspiracy in Singapore, and Tory wrote that "our Security Service shares his view.

"[3] Between 1964 and 1967 he was the British Ambassador to Ireland, before serving as the High Commissioner of the United Kingdom to Malta between 1967 and 1970.