Educated at St. Paul's school, London and Royal Military Academy, Woolwich where he was commissioned into the Royal Engineers in 1915. He served with the 201 Field Company RE on the western front from 1915 onwards and gained a reputation as an able tactician and for bravery. He was wounded twice. He then saw active service in India during the North Wst Frontier campaigns of the early and late 1920's, being mentioned in dispatches and appointed OBE (military). He entered the Staff College, Camberley, in 1932, where his abilities as a staff officer were recognised by his posting as a Brigade Major to a Scottish infantry brigade, and them as a GS02 Intelligence at the War Office. Early in 1940 he became the GS01 of the 1st Armoured Division, which was sent to France via Charbourg after the German offensive in the west had already begun. Broomhall was captured during the chaos of the withdrawal on Cherbourg when France collapsed. He was held captive for 5 years as a prisoner of war, with one particularly daring escape dressed as a German general. Upon his release in 1945, he was awarded the DSO for his outstanding leadership during 5 years of captivity. Soon after the war, he was appointed Chief Engineer, Allied Armies in Italy, 1946; Chief Engineer, British Army of the Rhine, 1947; and Chief Engineer, Middle East, in 1948. On his retirement from the Army in 1951, he became the chairman and managing director of the Cellulose Development Corporation until 1972.