 He attended West Downs School, Winchester, an independent preparatory school, and then went to Harrow School and Trinity College, Cambridge where he read Architecture and met his future business partner, and life partner, Paul Edward Paget, the son of the Bishop of Chester.He served during World War I, when one of his brothers, 2Lt Frank Reginald Seely of the Royal Hampshire Regiment, was killed in action at the Battle of Arras.After the War, he co-founded the architect firm of Seely & Paget.