Born in Lampeter in Wales in 1863, the eldest son of Anna Maria (née Woolrych) and the Right Reverend John James Stewart Perowne, the Vice-Principal of St David’s College, Lampeter, John Perowne attended Haileybury School before going to Corpus Christi College, Cambridge in 1882 where he obtained a B.A.
In 1898 his book Russian Hosts and English Guests in Central Asia was published by Scientific Press.
In March 1902 he was appointed an Esquire of the Order of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem in England,[4] and in 1903 he was awarded the Volunteer Officers' Decoration (VD).
[5] He contested unsuccessfully as a Liberal Unionist seats in the South Molton Division of Devon (January and December 1910) and the Isle of Wight (1922).
[5] In addition, he was Registrar and Knight of Justice of the Order of St John of Jerusalem (1926-1933), a Knight Hospitaller in the same Order (1933-1946), a Member of the Executive Committee of the British Red Cross Society and the Order of St. John War Organisation, Chairman of the Joint Council Finance Committee (1928-1945), and Vice Chairman of the Samaritan Hospital for Women in Nottingham.