Educated at Felsted School and the Royal Air Force College Cranwell, Harcourt-Smith was commissioned into the Royal Air Force in 1952.Debrett's People of Today 1994 He flew the DH Venom fighter-bomberOliver, D. (1987) British Combat Aircraft in action since 1945 pp. 83–4 in the Suez Crisis and Aden Emergency, where he won the Distinguished Flying Cross for gallantry and devotion to duty in 1957.
