[1] Significant events during his tenure included the independence of Western Samoa and the opening of the Auckland Harbour Bridge.

[4][5] Cobham was served by three Prime Ministers: Sidney Holland (1949–1957), Keith Holyoake (1957 and 1960–1972) and Walter Nash (1957–1960).

[1] Lyttelton enjoyed a career in first-class cricket, playing more than 90 times for Worcestershire in the 1930s and captaining the club between 1936 and 1939.

With the ball, his first victim (in July 1934) was Charlie Barnett, while in 1935 he produced his best innings' bowling, claiming 4–83 against the South Africans.

His cricketing career proper ended with the outbreak of war, but (now listed on the scorecard as Lord Cobham, having succeeded to the title in 1949) he played for an "MCC New Zealand Touring Team" against a strong "London New Zealand Club" side in 1954, taking two wickets including that of Bill Merritt.

Remarkably, he made a one-off return to first-class action aged 51 in February 1961, more than two decades after his previous appearance at that level, when as Governor-General he captained a New Zealand side against MCC at Auckland: he showed he still had ability, with a handy first-innings 44 from number ten in the order.

Bruce Murray writes that "On 12 March 1968 Vorster saw Lord Cobham, a former MCC President, in Cape Town, and told him 'quite categorically' that D’Oliveira would not be acceptable.

As Cobham later recalled in a letter to Sir de Villiers Graaff, the leader of the United Party, 'As I remember, he said that a Cape Coloured, alone of all races, castes and creeds, would be likely to provide a catalyst to the potentially explosive – or possibly one should say tricky – Cape Coloured situation'.

Children of Charles Lyttelton, 10th Viscount Cobham: His Garter banner, which hung in St. George's Chapel in Windsor during his lifetime, is now on display in the church of St John the Baptist, Hagley.