The son of
Sir Basil Liddell Hart (1895–1970), by his first wife Jessie Stone, Liddell Hart was the godson of Major-General
J. F. C. Fuller, and was educated at
St Andrew's School, Pangbourne, before
Eton and
King's College, Cambridge. With the outbreak of the
Second World War in 1939 he joined the
British Army and in 1940 became
adjutant of the
Local Defence Volunteers at
Dartington,
Devon. In 1941, he joined the trained
Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve and after training at ,
Fareham, he was selected as an officer candidate. After obligatory sea time as a junior rank on the
Flower-class corvette Carnation during which he saw service in the
Battle of the Atlantic, he was commissioned and attended the RNVR officer training course at in
Hove, Sussex. He was promoted to
sub lieutenant on in 1942 and saw active service in the Mediterranean in 1943, before joining the Combined Operations Command of British North African Forces later that year and the Signal Division of the
Admiralty in
London from 1943 to 1944, then and later in 1944. In 1945, he was appointed
flag lieutenant to the admiral commanding
Iceland. ==Later career==