Roger William Houssemayne du Boulay was born on 30 March 1922, the son of Charles John Houssemayne du Boulay and Mary Alice Veronica Morgan. He was educated at Winchester College and Oxford University. He married Elizabeth Home in 1957, with whom he has two stepsons and one daughter.

He served with the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve as a pilot, 1941-6. He joined the Colonial Service and was based in Nigeria, 1949-58. He transferred to the Foreign Service (later the Diplomatic Service) and held posts at the Foreign Office in London, 1959; the British Embassy in Washington, United States, 1960-4; the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London, 1964-7; and the British Embassy in Manila, Philippines, 1967-71. He was Alternate Director, 1967-9, and Director, 1969-71, of the Asian Development Bank in Manila. He was Counsellor and Head of Chancery at the British Embassy in Paris, France, 1971-3; Resident Commissioner in the New Hebrides (now Vanuatu), 1973-5; and Vice Marshal of the Diplomatic Corps, 1975-82. He has acted as an adviser to the governments of the Solomon Islands, 1986, and Swaziland [later Eswatini], 1992.

He is retired and lives in Hertfordshire.

He was created CVO, 1972; CMG, 1975; and KCVO, 1982.