During the First World War and back in uniform again he was first Chief of Staff to the South Persia Rifles, then onto St Petersburg at the height of the Revolution. Following his escape across Siberia and onto New York and then the Western Front, he joined the Persian Cossacks in their campaign against the Bolsheviks.
Back in the Survey and before retirement and politics in Ontario, he reached the upper echelons of their secretive work in India.
His political career was as controversial as his military, illustrating a degree of integrity that would have endeared him to Rudyard Kipling.