He also served as Liberal MP for Hull for thirty years, and in 1906 received the title Baron Nunburnholme.

He was educated at Kingston College in Hull, along with his brother Arthur, before eventually joining the family business, where they both became joint managers in 1867.

[1] Under the brother's management the shipping company rapidly expanded adding Adriatic, Sicilian, American and Indian services to the pre-existing Norwegian and Baltic trade.

Although opposed to the Boer War, he lent the company's finest vessel, Ariosto, at the government's disposal.

His eldest son Charles, who had succeeded him as MP for Hull West, inherited the Barony.