Born at Richmond House, London, he was the son of Charles Lennox, 5th Duke of Richmond, and his wife Lady Caroline Paget, daughter of Field Marshal Henry Paget, 1st Marquess of Anglesey.

He was educated at Westminster and Christ Church, Oxford, where he had a short career as a cricketer.

He chaired the Royal Commission on Capital Punishment, which reported in 1866, and the Royal Commission on Water Supply in 1869, which concluded that there was a need for some sort of overall planning of water supplies for domestic use.

[3] He was made a Knight of the Garter in 1867, and filled various positions in government in the Conservative administrations of the Earl of Derby, Disraeli and the marquess of Salisbury.

[4] In 1876 he was rewarded for his public service by being created Duke of Gordon and Earl of Kinrara in the Peerage of the United Kingdom.