[1] He was the eldest son of Edward Fiennes Elton and his wife Violet Hylda Fletcher.

[2] At Balliol College, Oxford, he first studied Literae humaniores (i.e. classics), and gaining a first class in Moderations in 1913.

In 1939 Elton gave up his teaching fellowship at Queen's College and the same year he became secretary of the Rhodes Trust, a post he held until 1959.

He joined the Labour Party shortly after the end of World War I and stood unsuccessfully for Thornbury in the 1924 and 1929 general elections.

Lord Elton married Dedi, daughter of Gustav Hartmann of Oslo, Norway, in 1921.

They had three children, one son and two daughters: Lord Elton died at the Dower House in Sutton Bonington, Nottinghamshire on 18 April 1973 aged 81.