Educated at Eton,[1] he lived at Hinton House, Hinton St George, Somerset, the centre of a large estate inherited from his father, William Poulett, 7th Earl Poulett, in 1918.
His mother was the former Sylvia Storey, a Gaiety girl.
[2][3] He was a pupil apprentice as a mechanical engineer at the GWR Locomotive Works, Swindon, and at the Signal Factory, Reading.
In 1940–41 he was technical assistant to the chief mechanical engineer at Woolwich Arsenal, then from 1941 to 1943 an assistant to the Director of Ordnance Factories (Small Arms).
In 1968 he sold the Hinton estate and settled with his last wife in Jersey, Channel Islands.