After Woolwich Burrard joined the Royal Artillery, the 60th Foot and the 1st Foot Guards, seeing combat in the American Revolution and the Revolutionary Wars. He was captured during a raid on the Bruges canal in 1798. He led the 2nd Brigade during the 1799 Anglo-Russian campaign in Holland, fighting at the battles of Bergen, Egmont and Castricum. In 1807, he commanded the 1st Division at the siege of Copenhagen.