He was promoted to captain on 18 August 1900 and saw active service in South Africa in reserve positions in Orange Free State and Transvaal.

[11][12] At the outbreak of the First World War he volunteered for active service, moving with the battalion to Dover initially and then to France in February 1915 where he was appointed Assistant Provost Marshal (APM) attached to 6th Division headquarters with the rank of major.

He served throughout the war, the division seeing action on the Western Front from the Second Battle of Ypres in 1915 through to the Hundred Days Offensive and attacks on the Hindenburg Line in 1918.

[1][12] He was mentioned in dispatches and awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) in the 1916 New Year Honours and received the Ordre de Léopold in 1918.

[1][2] The division saw service in the army of occupation following the Armistice with Germany and Tufton continued to serve as APM until April 1919 and was again mentioned in dispatches in July.

He served in the House of Lords, as a Justice of the Peace in both Kent and Westmorland and was twice Mayor of Appleby-in-Westmorland before the Second World War but had to sell most of land and property, mainly to his tenants, in 1947.