By 1916 he had been promoted to temporary captain, and by 1917 he was acting major and had been awarded the Military Cross and the D.S.O.

Five of these were for the Europeans in India between 1913–14 and 1920–21, while the other came after a decade's absence from first-class cricket when he appeared for the Army against Oxford University in 1931.

He succeeded William Findlay as Secretary of the Marylebone Cricket Club in 1936 and he retired in 1952.

His daughter Diana Rait Kerr became the first Curator of the MCC and she later became one of the first elected lady members of the club in 1999.

Colonel Rait Kerr died at Constantine Bay in Cornwall, aged 69.