Huw Lawford joined the Army in 1978 as a university cadetship officer reading Economics and Politics at Hatfield College, Durham University from where he graduated in 1981. He was commissioned into the Royal Regiment of Artillery the following year. He served in Germany and the United Kingdom before attending the Army Staff College in Camberley. After commanding his battery, for the most part in the infantry role in Northern Ireland, he was selected to join the team being formed to deploy to South Africa on the election of President Mandela in 1994. Following his time in South Africa, he was an instructor at Sandhurst and then selected for promotion and command of his Regiment. He was fortunate to have further promotion, operational tours to Bosnia and Afghanistan, and staff and command postings to Istanbul, Accra, Rome and London before leaving the Army to set up his own consultancy company. He lives in Somerset with his wife Trisha and they have two daughters, Emma and Harriet.