In early adulthood he served as a captain in the Royal Horse Guards.
Later he was appointed Honorary Colonel of the Royal South Gloucestershire Light Infantry Militia on 22 December 1857 in succession his uncle William Berkeley, 1st Earl FitzHardinge.
Two years later he succeeded his father in the barony and was enabled to take a seat in the House of Lords.
Lord FitzHardinge married Georgina, daughter of William Holme-Sumner, in 1857.
He died in London in June 1896, aged 69, and was succeeded in the peerage by his younger brother, Charles.