Having attended the
Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, Acland was
commissioned into the
Scots Guards as a
second lieutenant on 22 December 1948, with seniority from that date. He was given the
service number 397794. He was promoted to
lieutenant on 22 December 1950. He fought in the
Malayan Emergency. He was promoted to
captain on 22 December 1954. With his regiment, he was involved in the
Cyprus Emergency of 1957. He then took part in the combats of the
Mau Mau Uprising in
Kenya. His
aide-de-camp during this period was
Iain Duncan Smith, who would later go on to lead the
Conservative Party and hold several cabinet roles. Acland retired from the Army in 1981. ==Later life==