A graduate of both Sandhurst and Woolwich academies, he served in the Imperial forces in Canada, remaining after their 1871 withdrawal as Inspector of Warlike Stores, Commandant of the School of Gunnery and OC A Battery. He then became founding commissioner of the North West Mounted Police, bringing the lawless Canadian west under control.
As a colonel he became Commandant of the Queensland Defence Force in 1883 where he brought the force to a proper state of organisation and training, served in India from 1895, and returned as Commandant of the NSW Defence Force in 1899, continuing E.T.H. Hutton's rebuilding.
He was promoted to major general and knighted after returning home in 1902.