[1] Moved to a political role in the system of British indirect rule, Pelly in 1851–2 was posted to Baroda State.

[1] In April 1858 he was in London, where he had his book on Jacob published, and met Herbert Spencer at John Chapman's house, 142 The Strand.

[4] Pelly served as brigade major in the Frontier Force of the Scinde Irregular Horse, commanded by Jacob, in 1858.

[6] Alison sent Pelly on a special mission to Herat, in line with Rawlinson's idea that a British agent there would counter Russian influence.

[2] In 1860 Pelly had travelled overland on a horse, in uniform, from Tehran most of the way to Calcutta, a feat that impressed Sir Bartle Frere.

It involved an annual subsidy from Zanzibar to Oman, the Canning Award agreed at the level of 40,000 Maria Theresa thalers.

[11] Frere and Mackinnon had been discussing possible new British India Steam Navigation Company shipping lines from Bombay, to the Red Sea and Zanzibar.

[15][16] The plan approved in 1862, by Colonel Patrick Stewart, would connect Fao by the Shatt al Arab to Karachi.

[17] Pelly caused some confusion by a proposal for radical change in British arrangements, organised around a centre on the Musandam Peninsula.

[15] Pelly officially visited Riyadh in 1865 to meet with the ruler of the Second Saudi State, Faisal bin Turki.

[19] On the return sea journey from Bushire, heading for Muscat on the SS Berenice, captain Edwin Dawes, the vessel caught fire, and the passengers and crew made for Sheikh Shoeyb Island in lifeboats.

Others on the expedition included George Percy Badger as Arabic interpreter, and Kazi Shahabudi from Kutch, representing Indian traders with East Africa.

The embattled Robert Phayre, resident in Baroda, was the apparent victim of an attempted poisoning in November 1874, on the orders of its ruler Malhar Rao Gaekwad; but was unwilling to resign.

[29] Lord Lytton arrived in India in 1876, as incoming viceroy, and it was proposed to send Pelly to Kabul as envoy; but this offer was rejected by the Emir of Afghanistan.

[31] In January 1877 Pelly met the sadr-i a'zam Sayyid Nur Muhammad Shah representing the emir, Sher Ali Khan, in Peshawar.

[1] In 1885, by now a lieutenant general, he was elected as Conservative Member of Parliament for the newly created North Hackney constituency.

[35] On 8 March 1892 J. G. Swift MacNeill objected in Parliament to votes made by Pelly, William Burdett-Coutts and John Henry Puleston, directors and shareholders in the Imperial British East Africa Company, on a grant for a survey to be made from the East African coast to Lake Victoria Nyanza of a railway route.

[36] MacNeill's motion was successful, and the "distinction of degree" of self-interest involved in this "Mombasa railway" instance of disallowal of votes persisted in parliamentary practice.