Laurence Cranmore Giles was born in 1909 and educated at King Edward VI Grammar School in Birmingham. In 1928 he won a newspaper competition to tour Canada in a group of 50 young 'ambassadors of Empire', an experience which greatly influenced him. He read Classics at Queen's College, Oxford, and joined the Colonial Service in 1932.

Giles served as a district officer in Zaria Province, Nigeria, for three tours where he worked on local infrastructure and mediated in disputes. He learned Hausa and Fulani and in 1939 launched the Hausa monthly newspaper Gaskiya Ta Fi Kwabo. During World War II he enlisted in the Royal West African Frontier Force Reserves and, posted to military intelligence, liaised with the French West African territories. He worked closely with Félix Éboué, the governor of Chad, and with visiting Free French officers. After the war Giles continued in the Colonial Service in Northern Nigeria for ten years, apart from spending 1948 to 1950 as Supervisor of the Colonial Service Course in Oxford.

Giles worked for ICI from 1956 to 1970 and retired to Liphook, Hampshire. He died in 2007.