Following the outbreak of the Second Boer War in late 1899, he was with the 2nd Battalion of his regiment as it left Southampton for South Africa on the SS Britannic in March 1900.
[2] On arrival, the battalion was attached to the 16th Infantry Brigade serving as part of the 8th Division under Sir Leslie Rundle.
[3] After his return to the United Kingdom, he was on 15 August 1902 appointed Aide-de-Camp to Sir Henry Arthur Blake, Governor of Hong Kong.
[4][5][6] Before departure for Hong Kong, he took part in the Coronation of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra, and for this service was invested as a Member (fifth class) of the Royal Victorian Order (MVO) two days after the ceremony, on 11 August 1902.
[10] As a journalist on the Daily Express, in 1917 he founded and was author to its By the Way column, writing it pseudonymously as 'Beachcomber', before he was promoted to deputy editor and passed the role to D. B. Wyndham-Lewis in 1919.