Educated at
Felsted School and the
Royal Air Force College Cranwell, Harcourt-Smith was
commissioned into the
Royal Air Force in 1952. He flew the
DH Venom fighter-bomber in the
Suez Crisis and
Aden Emergency, where he won the
Distinguished Flying Cross for gallantry and devotion to duty in 1957. Harcourt-Smith was appointed
Officer Commanding No. 54 Squadron in 1963 and Officer Commanding
No. 6 Squadron in 1969 before moving on to be Station Commander at
RAF Bruggen in 1972 and Commandant of the Royal Air Force College Cranwell in 1978. He retired in 1989. ==Personal life and death==