Worsley was born on 29 May 1923 at Ballywalter, County Down, Northern Ireland, the son of Herbert Henry Knight Worsley, JP (1885–1947) of Lough House, Grey Abbey, County Down,[1] by Rose Austen (died 30 April 1958),[2] only daughter of John Alfred Hives of Upper Plain, Masterton, New Zealand, farmer,[3] and widow of Major Meyrick Myler Magrath, DSO, Royal Field Artillery, of Dorking House, Cosham, Hampshire.
[9][10] During the Second World War Worsley was commissioned as a second lieutenant into the British Army's Rifle Brigade (Prince Consort's Own) in 1942.
[12] He took command of the 7th Armoured Brigade in 1965 and Chief of Staff Far East Land Forces in 1969.
[17] He married on 6 May 1959 at Holy Trinity Church, Brompton, London, to Sarah Anne "Sally", eldest daughter of Brigadier J.
A. H. Mitchell of the British Embassy, Paris,[18] and they went on to have a son, Henry,[19] and a daughter, Charlotte.