Lord Mayor of Manchester in 1921–1922, he was a member of parliament for two terms between 1923 and 1931 before being elevated to the peerage and serving as the Chairman of the BBC Board of Governors.

They had three children: Roger, a solicitor and journalist; Brian, an educationalist and historian; and a daughter Antonia (Tony) who died in childhood.

[citation needed] After leaving Cambridge on the death of his father, he entered the family's engineering business, Simon Carves, manufacturers of flour milling machinery and coke ovens.

He successfully expanded the company into building grain silos, and with the wealth generated by the business pursued outside interests, including politics.

In 1947 he was raised to the peerage as Baron Simon of Wythenshawe, of Didsbury in the City of Manchester,[6] and he was appointed chairman of the BBC Board of Governors, a post which he held until 1952.