He was schooled at Eton College like his elder brother John Ruggles-Brise and joined the 104th (Essex Yeomanry) Field Brigade RA.
After the Allies invaded Italy, he was sent to PG19 camp further north at Bologna before being transferred to Castello di Vincigliata PG12 in the latter days before the Italian armistice.
The castle held some the highest ranking British and Commonwealth officers captured in the war, many during the campaigns in North Africa.
He and others from the safehouse including Rudolph Vaughan, John Combe, Ted Todhunter, Dan Ranfurly from Vincigliata, American diplomat Walter Orebaugh and American pilot Jack Reiter who had been shot down over Italy and had escaped from a military hospital to join the partisans, managed to reach the coast and put out to sea in a boat, which began to leak badly.
After rowing and bailing for 24 hours, they were at last picked up by an Italian vessel which landed them at Ancona, from where they were shipped to brigade HQ on 30 May 1944.