He attended Harrow School (where it was said that he could throw a cricket ball further than any other pupil before or since[1]) and read law at The Queen's College, Oxford.

After service in the Royal Berkshire Regiment in World War II, notably in India, he rejoined the company and served as its Managing Director (1964–1965), Chairman (1965–1984) and President (1984–1988).

[2][4] This was a politically unpopular finding, and was unacceptable to the now-Conservative government: Rampton was dismissed as chair to be replaced by Lord Swann.

They lived at Gort Lodge, an early 18th-century Grade II listed[8] house in Petersham, which was then in Surrey and is now in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames,[9] and had three sons, Richard, David and Ben, and a daughter, Elisabeth (Lizzie).

Over the course of 30 years he produced 350 paintings, including portraits, landscapes inspired by views of the Thames and of the Isle of Arran in Scotland where he and his family spent the summer months, and many pictures of buildings.