The son of the Reverend J. F. Groves,[1] he was born in April 1896 at Newport Pagnell and was educated at Nottingham High School.
[6] He transferred to the Tank Corps later in 1917 and shortly after transferring, he was awarded the Military Cross (MC) during the Battle of Passchendaele[2] for guiding his tanks through heavy artillery and machine gun fire, in addition to making to efforts ahead of the line to rescue an injured officer;[7] a bar as added to his MC in July 1918,[8] for successfully directing his tanks on foot whilst under heavy machine gun, direction which his bar citation claimed was largely responsible for the infantry reaching their objectives with slight casualties.
[9] Toward the end of the war, he was made a temporary major whilst commanding a company,[10] an appointment which he relinquished in October 1918.
Promotion to captain followed in October 1925,[17] with him being appointed an adjutant in the Royal Tank Corps (RTC) in December of the same year.
[25][26] He had been promoted to major in April 1937,[27] He served in the Second World War with the RTC, eventually retiring from active service on account of disability in July 1947, at which point he was granted the honorary rank of lieutenant colonel.