[1] He was educated at Harrow School and was admitted at Trinity College, Cambridge on 22 March 1858.

In 1888 he became a Senator of the College of Justice, Scotland, with the judicial title of Lord Wellwood.

He succeeded to the title Baron Moncreiff on the death of his father on 27 April 1895.

[5] He is buried with his two wives in the south-east corner of Grange Cemetery in Edinburgh.

[2] The stone bears a low-relief portrait of his young wife Minna.