In 1906 he was appointed to the public works department of the
Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, and in 1912 was appointed to the Sudan Political Service after the intervention of the Governor-General,
Reginald Wingate. Balfour joined the 6th Battalion,
Royal Northumberland Fusiliers, where he gained the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. During the
First World War he fought in
Mesopotamia between 1917 and 1919, taking a leading role in
defeating a rebellion in Najaf. From 1924 to 1926 he was Military Secretary to the
Governor of Madras,
George Goschen (whose daughter Phyllis he had married in 1920). From 1927 to 1928 he served as governor of the Red Sea Province of Sudan, and from 1929 to 1930 was Governor of the
Mongalla Province of Sudan. Balfour was decorated with the award of
Order of the Nile (3rd class), the
Military Cross and the award of
Order of the Lion and the Sun of
Persia (2nd class). He was invested as a Companion of the
Order of the Indian Empire (1919), as a Commander of the
Order of the British Empire (1931) and as a Commander of the
Royal Victorian Order (1953). He died on 16 April 1965 at the age of eighty. ==Private life==