As Lord Cole, he was appointed High Sheriff of Fermanagh for 1870 and then elected to the House of Commons for Enniskillen in 1880, a seat he held until 1885 when the constituency was abolished.
Lord Enniskillen was appointed a Knight of the Order of St Patrick (KP) in the 1902 Coronation Honours list published on 26 June 1902,[REF] and was invested by the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Earl Cadogan, at Dublin Castle on 11 August 1902 [REF].