Talbot served on the staff of General Ross during the Second Anglo-Afghan War and remained in that country as a member of the Afghan Boundary Commission.

Talbot retired in 1905, but was recalled to duty during the First World War, when he gave advice on plans for the Gallipoli Campaign and the defence of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan.

[6] Talbot served in the Second Anglo-Afghan War (1878-1880) on the staff of Major-General Sir Frederick Roberts, and was mentioned in dispatches by him after the Battle of Kandahar.

It was also noted that, despite being of the noblest blood of any of the surveyors, he did not rely on his aristocratic rank and, when one of his colleagues fell ill in the field, he tended to him as a nurse.

[12] On 15 November 1892, Talbot was appointed a staff officer at army headquarters and he became Deputy Assistant Adjutant General on 1 September 1895, holding that position for two years.

[16] On 2 August 1900, he was granted permission by Queen Victoria to accept an appointment as a third class member of the Ottoman Order of Osmanieh.

[24] Talbot was placed on half pay from 1 January 1905 having reached the limit of five years in rank as a lieutenant-colonel and retired from the army on 22 April.

Talbot recorded that Callwell considered it was "likely to prove an extremely difficult operation of war" but thought a force of sixty thousand men could prevail.