Born in Chelmsford, Essex, he was the only surviving son of Major John Elsdale Molson, Member of Parliament for Gainsborough from 1918 to 1923, and Mary Leeson.

To the young Waugh, he represented a figure of louche daring, as evidenced by many suggestive but mostly inexplicit references in his published letters and diaries.

Molson was the unsuccessful Conservative candidate in Aberdare in 1929, then sat as Member of Parliament (MP) for Doncaster from 1931 to 1935 and for High Peak, Derbyshire, from 1939 to 1961.

He held Ministerial office as Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Works from 1951 to 1953, Joint Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation from November 1953 to January 1957, and as Minister of Works from 1957 until October 1959.

[3] He was appointed a Privy Counsellor in 1956, and was created a Life Peer on 21 February 1961 as Baron Molson, of High Peak in the County of Derby.