Accepted at the age of eighteen into the Inns of Court Officers' Training Corps, he gained a commission in the Wiltshire Regiment and a silver medal for boxing.

In the inter-war years, Pafford proved himself to be an enthusiastic European: his Library Cooperation in Europe, 1935, continuing to be a valued work of reference (according to George Kane, in 1996).

[4] In 1943, seconded to Southern Command, and promoted Major, he began long discussions with fellow professional librarian Captain Mainwood of the Army Education Corps (AEC).

This, the standard unit library, was the key element in a project which ultimately involved 3.3 million books, selected and despatched to around 3,000 locations.

Milne makes a passing mention [not altogether an accurate one] to Pafford's 'satisfaction of seeing' [the unit library project] 'in full operation before his own return to civilian duties.'

In fact, Pafford left the project on 12 October 1945,[5] two months after the surrender of Japan – with barely half of the library books distributed.

Long drawn-out hostilities with Japan, and a gradual release of service personnel – which had seemed probable – would have stood the librarians' plans in better stead.

The means of its achievement, through the atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, would have put Major Pafford and his Quaker wife in a difficult position.

His prowess as an archer has equalled his marksmanship with the modern weapon, and only very occasionally has the stray shot over the garden wall alarmed his neighbours in Wimbledon.

'[3] The following books and pamphlets, written prior to his retirement, are listed in Milne: There are also editorial works, including the Arden edition of Shakespeare’s Winter’s Tale (Methuen 1963/1965); and, for example, Accounts of the parliamentary garrisons of Great Chalfield and Malmesbury, 1645-6I (Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society, 1940).