He joined the Black Watch in World War II, but finding himself deskbound, he returned to farm his estate at Megginch.
In addition to being an organic soil and fish farmer, he was an author (as John Drummond) of ten books of fact and fiction, inventor, record producer, restaurateur and politician.
Guests would include his friends in show business, such as the stage and film producer, director and writer, Basil Dean, and actors such as Stewart Granger, Laurence Harvey, Hermione Baddeley and Sir John Mills, who made him godfather to his daughter, the actress Hayley Mills.
After his death, his daughter, Cherry, spoke in the House of Lords: "I also helped my noble father on his wartime book on agriculture, Charter for the Soil, in which he outlined the future importance of combine harvesting, supermarkets and direct farm marketing.
"[6] In 1965, he handed over the estate of Megginch to his eldest daughter, Cherry, and went to live in the Isle of Man in the Irish Sea.
He saw himself as a representative of this independent Island, which had no voice at Westminster, and as a courtesy to Manx politics, he sat as a cross-bencher in the House of Lords.
In the Isle of Man, he bought property, farms and river banks with a view to running a fishing lodge based at Tholt-y-Will in Sulby Glen, a remote but enchanting location.