The eldest son and second child of Sir Henry Fletcher, 3rd Baronet (born 1807) and Emily Maria Browne, he succeeded to the baronetcy on 6 September 1851 upon the death of his father. In 1903, he had his name changed under Royal Licence to Henry Aubrey-Fletcher to reflect his inheritance from the Aubrey estate.[1]
Before his service in Parliament, he had been a lieutenant in the Grenadier Guards and then after retirement from the Regular Army he had been appointed a supernumerary lieutenant-colonel in the part-time 2nd Sussex Rifle Volunteers on 6 May 1874. He succeeded to the command of the battalion in 1882 and held it until 1897. Then as a colonel he commanded the Sussex & Kent Volunteer Infantry Brigade until 1904.[2] He was Chairman of the National Rifle Association and during the Boer War was a strong advocate that rifle clubs should be formed throughout the country with the aim that every able-bodied man be enabled to be an effective shot.[3]