Initially a Liberal, Lord Bury was elected Member of Parliament (MP) for Norwich in 1857,[REF] and later represented Wick Burghs from 1860 to 1865[REF] and Berwick-upon-Tweed from 1868 to 1874 [REF].
Two years later Lord Bury was appointed Under-Secretary of State for War in Lord Beaconsfield's Conservative administration, which he remained until the government fell in 1880.