 He was educated at Maidwell Hall prep school in Northamptonshire and Eton College.After National Service from 1949 to 1951 as a second lieutenant in the King's Royal Rifle Corps, he read history and economics at Pembroke College, Cambridge from 1951 to 1954 (where his grandfather, Sir Montagu Butler, had been Master).After graduating, he joined the Canadian Army for as a captain to serve as aide-de-camp to the Governor-General of Canada, Vincent Massey, for one year.