[1][2] [3] [4] [5] Stewart was born in Melbourne into a wealthy Australian family with pastoral interests in the Bathurst district of New South Wales.
[6] Stewart received a spasmodic education at The Scots College, Sydney due to his parents' frequent travels, but developed a love of reading from long holidays spent in the library of his uncle's house (Abercrombie House) in Bathurst.
[7] The family moved to Paris when Stewart was in his late teens, where he attended an English language school and then studied art.
He is said to have been banished from the poetry circle of Victor Neuburg, a former associate of occultist Aleister Crowley, for making jokes about 'yogis and bogeys'.
When the Second World War broke out he joined the British army and served as an officer in the artillery in India and Burma.