In 1841, at the age of twenty he entered the Austrian army and in August 1842 was promoted to Second Lieutenant in the Prince Regent's 7th Reuss Regiment of the Hungarian Hussars.

Towards the end of 1847 he suffered health problems and went to Recoaro spa in northern Italy, then Gräfenberg (now Lázně Jeseník) and finally Aachen before resigning from the Austrian army in June 1848 after charges against him relating to debts and absence without leave were dropped.

He did his cadet training at Phoenix Park Depot in Dublin between November 1849 and January 1850, was promoted to 3rd Class Sub-Inspector and was stationed in County Kildare.

He left Australia on the S.S. Marco Polo on 25 March 1856 for England, but, by the time he arrived in Liverpool in June, peace had been declared and the war ended.

[citation needed] In June 1860, Burke was appointed to lead the Victorian Exploring Expedition with William John Wills, his third-in-command, as surveyor and astronomical observer.

They reached Menindee on 23 September 1860 where several people resigned, including the second-in-command, George James Landells and the medical officer, Dr. Hermann Beckler.

The small team of Burke, William Wills, John King and Charley Gray reached the mangroves on the estuary of the Flinders River, near where the town of Normanton now stands, on 9 February 1861.

[citation needed] Already weakened by starvation and exposure, their progress on the return journey was slow and hampered by the tropical monsoon downpours of the wet season.

[6] They attempted to reach Mount Hopeless, the furthest outpost of pastoral settlement in South Australia, which was closer than Menindee, but failed and returned to Cooper Creek.

In 1862 Howitt returned to Cooper Creek and disinterred Burke and Wills' bodies, taking them first to Adelaide and then by steamer to Melbourne where they were laid in state for two weeks.