Acland was born in London, the younger son of Admiral Sir William Acland, 2nd Bt,, and the Hon. Emily Anna Smith. After attending Bradfield College, Acland joined the Royal Navy on 15 January 1905, at the age of 14. After training he was assigned to the armoured cruiser, part of the Channel Fleet, with the rank of midshipman in 1908. He attained promotion to sub-lieutenant on 15 November 1909, and to lieutenant on 15 November 1910. He served throughout the Great War, receiving a Mention in Dispatches. On 15 November 1918, within a few days of the armistice with Germany, Acland was promoted to lieutenant commander, and on 8 March 1920 he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order in recognition of his "distinguished services as Gunnery Officer of the 1st Destroyer Flotilla, while operating in the Baltic in 1919". Stationed at Port Edgar on the Firth of Forth from late 1920 until early 1922, he returned to sea to serve as Gunnery Officer aboard the light cruiser in July 1922, and then aboard the cadet training battleship from July 1924, receiving promotion to commander on 31 December 1924. Acland spent two years from March 1925 in the Naval Intelligence Division at the Admiralty, before serving aboard the heavy cruiser from December 1927 as Fleet Gunnery Officer of the China Station. After returning to England in 1930, he briefly commanded the reserve cruiser, at Devonport, before being assigned to the battleship in the Mediterranean Fleet in December. Promoted to captain on 30 June 1932, he attended the Royal Navy War College at Greenwich and the Senior Officers' School at Sheerness from March 1933, before being appointed to command of as Senior Officer of the 1st Minesweeping Flotilla on 12 March 1934. From 1 August 1935 he was in command of and the Fishery Protection and Minesweeping Flotilla. He returned to duty at the Admiralty in April 1936 and briefly commanded the target vessel in October of that year. In February 1937, Acland was lent to the Royal Australian Navy, where he served as commanding officer of the heavy cruiser from April 1937 to April 1938, then the seaplane carrier as she was sailed back to the UK, arriving at Devonport in December 1938. In August 1939, just before the outbreak of the Second World War, he was appointed Senior Officer of the Reserve Fleet at Devonport, and from November 1939 was Commanding Officer of the Gunnery School at Chatham. From 15 March 1941, he commanded the fleet repair ship and, from 8 July 1941, served as Naval Aide-de-camp to the King. Acland was officially placed on the Retired List on 6 February 1942, but remained in service on the staff of the Commander-in-Chief at Rosyth in 1943, and from November of that year until the end of the war served under the Flag Officer-in-Charge, Northern Ireland, based in Belfast. He finally retired from the Navy after the end of the war in 1945.
