He was educated at Rugby and Christ Church, Oxford, and was called to the Bar, Inner Temple, in 1896.

[1] When the National Government was formed in 1931 he was sworn of the Privy Council[3] and made Minister of Labour under Ramsay MacDonald,[4] a post he held until 1934,[1] when he left the House of Commons after appointment as the chair of the Unemployment Assistance Board.

[10] Rushcliffe, as he was now known, chaired the Nurses Salaries Committee which was established in October 1941.

[11] It was the first official body to fix salary scales and conditions for nursing in England.

After her death in October 1947 he married secondly Inez Alfreda, daughter of Alfred Lubbock and widow of Sir Harold Edward Snagge, in 1948.