After passing out from Sandhurst, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant into the King's Own Royal Regiment (Lancaster) on 1 September 1927.

[1][2] Anderson served with the 2nd Battalion, King's Own throughout most of the interwar period and was promoted to lieutenant on 1 September 1930,[3] and captain on 28 December 1936.

[4] From 30 March 1937 he served as his battalion's adjutant,[5] which was deployed to Palestine the following year, where it was stationed during the Arab revolt in Palestine, and commanded for most of this time by Lieutenant Colonel Neil Ritchie, who was succeeded in August 1939 by John Hardy.

[8] In 1944 he was made Commanding officer (CO) of the 1st Battalion, King's Own Royal Regiment (Lancaster), commanding it in the Italian Campaign where he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order for leading an attack on the village of Montone, which was successfully taken with only 28 casualties (including 5 KIA) compared to 105 Germans (20 KIA, the rest taken prisoner).

[7] After the Second World War he returned to Palestine and then became General officer commanding (GOC) 17th Gurkha Division in 1955.