[2][3][4] Hobhouse was commissioned from Sandhurst as a lieutenant in the King's Royal Rifle Corps (KRRC) on 23 August 1884,[4] and served with the regiment until he resigned from the Regular Army on 7 May 1890 to enter politics.

[6] When a new 3rd Volunteer Battalion of the Gloucestershire Regiment was formed in Bristol during the Second Boer War, he was commissioned as a major in the unit, succeeding to its command with the rank of lieutenant-colonel on 5 April 1903.

[8] Hobhouse retired from the command on 5 April 1911,[9] but on the death of the 6th Gloucesters' Honorary Colonel, Earl Roberts, shortly after the outbreak of World War I, he was appointed to succeed him on 24 December 1914.

[10] Hobhouse continued to be the 6th Gloucesters' Hon Colonel for the rest of his life, the battalion being converted into 44th Royal Tank Regiment in 1938.

At the Coupon election in 1918 he lost his seat, as did Asquith, McKenna, Runciman, Simon, Samuel and McKinnon Wood.