In 1920 he married Violet Mary, only daughter of Sir Michael Lakin, 1st Baronet.
[3] Pitman entered the British Army in 1889 and served with the 11th (Prince Albert's Own) Hussars for 26 years.
[4] Seeing service in the North West Frontier campaign 1897–98, he then served in South Africa during the Second Boer War, where he was second-in-command of the 5th battalion of the Imperial Yeomanry.
After the end of the war in June 1902, he left Cape Town in the SS Plassy in August, returning to Southampton the following month.
[5][8] By the outbreak of the First World War, Pitman was a lieutenant-colonel commanding the 11th Hussars and took them to the Western Front in August 1914.