Hugh Stanley Senior was educated at Weymouth College and at Hertford College, Oxford, taking a post as a cadet in the Colonial Service, Tanganyika Territory, 1930 and assistant district officer, 1932. He served with the 1st Battalion, King's African Rifles, Nyasaland, c1936-1939 and 6th Battalion, Tanganyika, Sudan and Abyssinia, 1939-1941. He became district officer, Tanganyika, 1942, senior, 1950, interpreter, Kisukuma, then Secretary, Development Commission, 1947.