Born George Fleming Leicester, he was the eldest son of John Leicester, 1st Baron de Tabley, by his wife Georgina Maria Cottin, daughter of Josiah Cottin, and a godson of George IV.
[2] Lord de Tabley succeeded in the barony on the death of his father in 1827.
[6] In 1868 he was appointed Treasurer of the Household in the first Liberal administration of William Ewart Gladstone,[7] a post he held until 1872,[8] and was sworn of the Privy Council in 1869.
Lord de Tabley subsequently married Elizabeth Smith-Barry (née Jacson) in 1871 but had no further children.
He died in October 1887, aged 75, to be succeeded in his titles by his eldest and only surviving son, John.