Howard Craufurd Elphinstone was born on December 12, 1829, in Kumenhof near Sunzei, Livonia (now Latvia).

He was a British Army officer. He joined the Corps of Royal Engineers as a gentleman cadet at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich and was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in 1847. With the outbreak of the Crimean War, Elphinstone was posted to the Crimea and it was during the Siege of Sebastopol that he won the Victoria Cross (1855). He was decorated by both Napoleon III, Emperor of France and Abdülmecid I, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire. In 1859, he joined the Royal Household of Queen Victoria as governor to her son Prince Arthur and later to Prince Leopold. In 1865, the Queen rewarded him for his service by appointing him a Companion of the Order of the Bath (Civil Division). In 1868, he was appointed a brevet lieutenant colonel and in 1870, he was made a Companion of the Order of St. Michael and St. George. In 1871, Prince Arthur appointed him a Comptroller of his Household and a Companion of the Military Division of Order of the Bath. He was knighted as a Knight Commander of the Civil Division of the Order of the Bath. Returning to military service, Elphinstone served as an Aide-de-camp to the Queen in 1877 and was promoted to colonel at the end of 1881. He was also appointed an Officer Commanding Royal Engineers in Mauritius. In 1884/1885, he served as a military attaché in Berlin. In 1887, he was promoted to major general and in 1889, he became General Officer Commanding Western District, but he drowned in 1890 when he fell overboard while on a trip to Madeira.

In 1876, he married Annie Frances Cole (1856–1938). He died on March 8, 1890, at sea near Madeira, the Bay of Biscay.