Long was educated at St David's School, Reigate,[1] and later at Eton on the insistence of his mother, who had remarried in 1921 to Lord Glyn.

Lord Long was afraid that she had not instilled any affection for Rood Ashton in his grandson, and he consequently believed he might eventually sell the estate,[2] which had been in the family for hundreds of years.

During the Second World War, Lord Long fought as a Major with the Coldstream Guards and he himself was killed in action at Uden, Netherlands in 1944.

In 1933, directly after his marriage, Long and his new wife travelled to New Zealand to take up an appointment as Aide de Camp to Lord Bledisloe.

The former Lady Long subsequently married three more times, in 1943 to the 3rd Earl of Dudley, in 1960 to Michael Temple Canfield, and lastly in 1972 to the 10th Duke of Marlborough.