After leaving the service in 1930, Birdwood made a bid to become Governor-General of Australia. He had the backing of the King and the British government. However, the Australian Prime Minister James Scullin insisted that his Australian nominee Sir Isaac Isaacs be appointed. Instead, Birdwood was appointed Master of Peterhouse, Cambridge on 20 April 1931 and Captain of Deal Castle in 1934. In 1935 he wrote for the Western Australian distance education magazine "Our Rural Magazine" claiming that he had two granddaughters making good use of distance courses for educational purposes. In May 1936, he returned to Gallipoli aboard RMS Lancastria and visited war memorials on the peninsula. He retired from academic work in 1938.