Intending to join the British Indian Army, he obtained a commission in the Madras Light Cavalry, but never took up his post, instead being called to the bar in 1852,[citation needed] after which he practiced as a conveyancing barrister.

Chief Justice John Jackson Smale ordered his release on the basis that Kwok was entitled to take any necessary steps to secure his freedom.

[7] In 1888, he became a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB),[8] and the following year was sent to the United States as Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary.

He and American secretary of state Richard Olney in January 1897 negotiated an arbitration treaty, but the U.S. Senate, jealous of its prerogatives, refused to ratify it.

[citation needed] Having finally become a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath (GCB) in 1892,[12] Pauncefote the following year became the first British Ambassador to the United States.

He was sworn of the Privy Council in 1894[13] and raised to the peerage as Baron Pauncefote, "of Preston, Dymock in the County of Gloucester", in 1899.

His formal state funeral took place at St John's Episcopal Church in Washington, where his daughter had been married.

His remains were transferred back to the United Kingdom in the USS Brooklyn,[17] and were buried in the churchyard of St Oswald's Church, East Stoke in Nottinghamshire on 15 July 1902.