 He was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford, before joining the Royal Scots Greys in 1925.From 1936 to 1937, Lopes was aide-de-camp to George Villiers, 6th Earl of Clarendon, the Governor-General of South Africa.He left the regiment in 1938, when he succeeded his father as Baron Roborough, but he rejoined in 1939 with the outbreak of the Second World War.