[1] On 1 October 1939, shortly after the outbreak of the Second World War, when he was nineteen, Jardine Paterson received an emergency commission into the Black Watch[5] and served with distinction.
[6] After leaving the Army, he joined the family firm, by now renamed Jardine Henderson Ltd, of Calcutta, and was a director of the company from 1952 to 1967, chairman from 1963 to 1967.
[2] A shrewd business man, he had to deal with the tremendous disruptions to trade caused by the partition of India in 1947, and during the years which followed he worked to rebuild the flagging jute industry.
[2] He then joined McLeod Russel PLC as a director from 1967 to 1984 and served as company chairman from 1979 to 1983,[2] diversifying the firm's business into property and North Sea oil.
[2][7] He was a member of the Oriental Club and at the time of his death was living in retirement at Norton Bavant Manor in Wiltshire, which had been bought in 1947 by his father-in-law.