Educated at Summerfields (Summer Fields School), Oxford, Stowe School and Trinity College, Cambridge, Harland joined the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve in 1939 before the outbreak of the Second World War.
[1] He transferred to the Technical Branch in 1941 and worked at the Royal Aircraft Establishment in Farnborough.
[2] After three years at the Air Ministry in London, he was trained as a pilot before going as Chief Engineering Instructor at the RAF Cadet College at Cranwell.
[2] In 1953 he became Project Officer responsible for the Thunderbird missile at the Royal Aircraft Establishment.
He lived in the town and was President of the Bury St Edmunds Society,[3] a local preservation group.