[3] Vetch trained for a career in the British Army as a gentleman cadet at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich,[4] a specialist school for future Engineer and Artillery officers, where the subjects studied included mathematics, the principles of fortification, gunnery, and bridge-building.
[4][1] His early work was on defences at Bermuda, Malta, and the Bristol Channel, and he became secretary of the Royal Engineers' Institute at Chatham.
[1] In his later career, Vetch was successively deputy inspector-general of fortifications and chief engineer in Ireland, retiring from military service in 1898.
[1] As a military historian and biographer, Vetch edited a history of General Gordon's campaign in China and wrote biographies of two fellow Royal Engineers, Sir Gerald Graham VC and General Sir Andrew Clarke, an inspector-general of fortifications.
[2] In 1911, Vetch was living in Kew with his wife of 47 years, Mary Ann, who had been born in Wellington, New Zealand, two unmarried daughters, a cook, and a housemaid.