[4] Among his extended family was uncle Maj. Francis Forester (MP for Wenlock who married Lady Louisa Vane, a daughter of the 1st Duke of Cleveland).
In 1841 he was appointed Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms in the Tory administration of Sir Robert Peel,[8] which he remained until the government fell in 1846.
[12] Lord Forester served in the South Salopian Yeomanry Cavalry, being promoted from Lieutenant to Captain in May 1826[13] and as late as 1852 was in command of a troop of theirs at Wellington, Shropshire.
[15] A keen fox hunter from university days, Lord Forester was Master of Fox Hounds of the Belvoir Hunt in Leicestershire, of which the Duke of Rutland's family were also members, from 1830 to 1858, and was credited with bringing competitive athletics into Shropshire by his patronage of the Wenlock Olympian Games,[16] where he normally presented the prize cups for the tilting matches.
[18] On 10 June 1856, Lord Forester married the German born Alexandrine Julie Theresa Wilhelmina Sophie Lamb, Viscountess Melbourne (née Countess von Maltzan) at St John's, Paddington, London.