[4] After travelling in Russia, detailed in his St. Petersburg and Moscow (1846), Mayo was elected MP for Kildare (1847–52), Coleraine (1852–7) and Cockermouth (1857–68).

He was thrice appointed Chief Secretary for Ireland – in 1852, 1858 and 1866 – and in 1869 he became the fourth Viceroy of India where he was locally often referred to as "Lord Mayo".

He consolidated the frontiers of India and reorganised the country's finances; he also did much to promote irrigation, railways, forests and other useful public works.

[9] On 19 August 1875, a statue of Lord Mayo was unveiled in the centre of the main street in the town of Cockermouth.

The statue, carved in Sicilian marble, depicts Lord Mayo in his viceregal garb, and still stands today.

The 9-foot-tall (2.7 m) cast-iron statue, weighing around 3 tons, was ordered sculpted by the Maharaja Ram Singh ji of Jaipur, as a tribute to Lord Mayo after his assassination.

This statue of Lord Mayo had been buried in the premises of the Albert Hall Museum of Jaipur at the time of the independence of India in 1947 to prevent vandalism.

It was later removed from the Albert Hall Museum in Jaipur and sent to Mayo College, in Ajmer, India, where it is now installed.