During the First World War he served in the artillery and, since he spoke four languages fluently, as an intelligence officer in France, Italy North Africa, Egypt, Libya, Palestine and Syria. Rodd would later make two great expeditions into the central Sahara (in 1922 and 1927) which provided him for the material of his book about the Tuareg, entitled People of the Veil. In 1939, Rodd was re-commissioned into the army and served as Chief of Civil Affairs, Staff Officer of the Allied Military Government in Sicily and as Major General, Civil Affairs Administration Middle East Command, East Africa Command, and Italy. After the war he joined the civil service.