He volunteered for active service in the Second Boer War, and was commissioned a lieutenant in the 1st Battalion (Wiltshire Company) Imperial Yeomanry on 7 February 1900,[2][9] leaving Liverpool for South Africa on the SS Cymric in early March 1900.

[10] Appointed a quartermaster during the voyage (dated 10 March 1900),[11] he was back as a regular lieutenant in the Wiltshire company of the 1st battalion the following month.

[17] He was made a KCMG and Privy Counsellor in 1911, and in 1912 was appointed President of the Royal Commission on the Public Services of India, on which he served with Lord Ronaldshay, Herbert Fisher, Mr Justice Abdur Rahim, and others.

[18] Earlier on he was appointed for the Royal Commission on London Traffic in 1904, and worked on trade relations between Canada and the West Indies in 1909.

Lord Islington died on 6 December 1936 aged 70 at Hyde Park Gardens, London, and was buried at Hilmarton, Wiltshire, his barony and baronetcy becoming extinct at his death.