Serving in the Artists' Rifles, Worcestershire Regiment and the Machine Gun Corps during World War I, he was twice mentioned in despatches and awarded the Military Cross in 1918. After the war, in 1919, as an enthusiastic mountaineer, he completed the first ascent of the Innominata face of Mont Blanc in the French Alps. Also in 1919, he met his future wife, Virginia (née Peirano), whom he married on 20 August 1923 at Fiume (now Rijeka,Croatia).