Shuckburgh matriculated from King's in 1896 and graduated B.A. with a first class in part I of the Classics Tripos in 1899. From 1909 to 1921 he rose up the ranks of the India Office, then transferring to the Colonial Office where he was ultimately, from 1931 to 1942, Deputy Under-Secretary of State. In 1939 he had been appointed Governor of Nigeria, but did not take up the post owing to the war. He was knighted in 1922.