[1] He was the only son of Conservative politician Sir Archibald Boyd-Carpenter MP and his wife Annie Dugdale.

He was Harmsworth Law Scholar at the Middle Temple in 1933 and called to Bar the next year, and practised in the London and South-East Circuit.

[1] Boyd-Carpenter joined the Scots Guards in 1940 and held various staff appointments, including with the Allied Military Government in Italy, retiring with the rank of Major.

[4] In December 1955 he was moved to the position of Minister of Pensions and National Insurance, which he held until July 1962 (the young Margaret Thatcher served under him as Parliamentary Secretary, her first ministerial job, from October 1961).

[2] Following the Conservative defeat in 1964,[3] he served as Opposition Front Bench Spokesman on Housing, Local Government and Land, 1964–66, and as Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee from 1964 to 1970.

In 1937, Boyd-Carpenter married Margaret ("Peggy") Mary, daughter of Lieutenant-Colonel George Leslie Hall, OBE, of the Royal Engineers.