Gladstone was the third son and seventh child of Liberal statesman and four times Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, William Ewart Gladstone, and his wife Catherine Glynne.

In 1881 he was made a junior partner in the firm, and 1883 his father gave him £4000 with which to buy a senior partnership.

[3] Gladstone became Lord of the Manor of the family estates at Hawarden, when its previous owner, his nephew, William Glynne Charles Gladstone, was killed in action in April 1915.

Gladstone purchased the succession to the estate, paid off the outstanding mortgage and improved the house, which from 1921 was his home for the rest of his life.

He succeeded his late nephew as Lord Lieutenant of Flintshire, and was President of the University College of North Wales at Bangor.