His older brother John joined the Life Guards, succeeding to the family estate and titles in 1866 on the death of their father.

William joined the 9th Queen's Royal Lancers, was awarded the VC in the Anglo-Zulu War and became military secretary to several viceroys of India.

Their estate covered 100,000 acres (400 km2) at Curraghmore near Waterford in south east Ireland, had stables for 100 horses and employed 600 people.

[2] The family enjoyed hunting, to the extent that his uncle was killed in a riding accident, his brother was crippled in another, and he himself managed ten broken bones at various times.

On the evening of 21 April Beresford and two other midshipmen pulled a prank and stole a wooden American eagle sign from the gate of the legation of United States Minister to Hawaii James McBride.

[13] Later in 1865, Beresford was transferred to the steam-corvette HMS Tribune, which was commanded by Lord Gilford and was one of the smartest ships in the navy at the time.

[16] Beresford broke a bone in his foot whilst dismounting a gun on Excellent, an injury that caused him pain for the rest of his life.

[17] Beresford joined the steam-frigate HMS Galatea,[18] commanded by Queen Victoria's son the Duke of Edinburgh, and toured the world, witnessed executions in Japan and got tattooed.

Some difficulties arose with the Lords of the Admiralty, who objected to a junior officer debating the navy publicly in the House of Commons.

In 1891 Beresford's affair with Daisy Greville, Countess of Warwick (i.e., Frances Brooke) resulted in a serious dispute with the Prince of Wales.

William Penny Brookes invited him to be president of the Wenlock Olympian Society Annual Games in Shropshire for the years 1888 and 1889 but he was unable to be present at the sports, because of other commitments.

[23] In July 1889, Beresford resigned from the House of Commons for the first of four times by being appointed Crown Steward and Bailiff of the Chiltern Hundreds.

Shortly after his arrival, Beresford took a company of men ashore and used them as stand-ins for ships to practice manoeuvring and assembling a fleet.

Beresford aspired to reach the navy's most senior post, First Sea Lord, but the position was held by Fisher, who was widely respected.

I do not recall that any serious problems of war were either attempted or solved [but] Lord Charles received deputations, addressed crowded meetings in his honour, and became freeman of innumerable cities'.

[34] Beresford is credited with recommending the use of Grimsby trawlers for minesweeping operations following visits he made to various East Coast ports in 1907.

[35] It was also thought that trawlermen would be more skilled than naval ratings with regards to the handling of the sizeable warps and winches that would be required for minesweeping as they were already accustomed to using them with the working of the trawl.

In the First World War the boats provided the craft, the trawler fleet the crew, and the port a base for the Royal Naval Patrol Service.

In November 1907, Beresford ordered all ships of the Channel Fleet then at sea to return to harbour to be repainted for a review by the Kaiser.

The armoured cruiser HMS Roxburgh was engaged in gunnery practice at Portland, and its captain requested permission to finish the exercise before returning to harbour.

After his term with the Channel Fleet finished in 1909, Beresford returned to Parliament at the January 1910 general election, representing Portsmouth.

During his spell as commander of the Channel Fleet Beresford had become increasingly critical of Admiralty policy, in particular the organisational reforms instituted by Fisher.

[37] This upheld Admiralty policy, but sufficient damage was done to Fisher's reputation that he was obliged to retire slightly early, in 1910, in anticipation of a forthcoming general election.

Beresford questioned the matter of Bridgeman's resignation, officially said to be for reasons of ill health, by challenging Churchill in the House of Commons.

Churchill responded, saying of Beresford that "since I became first lord of the admiralty...within a fortnight he made a speech in which he said I had betrayed the navy...and ever since he has been going about the country pouring out charges of espionage, favouritism, blackmail, fraud, and inefficiency...

[41][42] Nonetheless, with the outbreak of war, rising anti-German sentiment among the British public, newspapers, and elite gentlemen's clubs (where resentment was inflamed by Beresford despite Churchill's remonstrances)[43] drove Churchill to ask Prince Louis to resign as on 27 October 1914,[44] which Louis did amidst an outpouring of appreciation from politicians and his naval comrades.

In January 1916, he resigned from the Commons for the fourth and final time, again becoming Crown Steward and Bailiff of the Manor of Northstead, and was raised to the peerage as Baron Beresford of Metemmeh and of Curraghmore in the County of Waterford.