He thereafter occupied a variety of government posts, including secretary to the British prime minister and, after being raised to the peerage as Lord Willingdon, as Lord-in-waiting to King George V. From 1913, Willingdon held gubernatorial and viceregal offices throughout the British Empire, starting with the governorship of Bombay and then the governorship of Madras, before he was in 1926 appointed as the Governor-General of Canada to replace the Viscount Byng of Vimy, occupying the post until succeeded by the Earl of Bessborough in 1931.

Willingdon was immediately thereafter appointed as Viceroy and Governor-General of India to replace Lord Irwin (later created Earl of Halifax), and he served in the post until succeeded by the Marquess of Linlithgow in 1936.

[4] Upon his return to the United Kingdom, Freeman-Thomas joined the Liberal Party and in 1900 was elected to the British House of Commons to represent the borough of Hastings.

[6] Though he lost in the January 1906 elections, Freeman-Thomas returned to the House of Commons by winning the by-election for Bodmin,[7] and, for some time, served as a secretary to the prime minister, H. H. Asquith.

For his services in government, Freeman-Thomas was in 1910 elevated to the peerage as Baron Willingdon of Ratton in the County of Sussex,[8] and the following year was appointed as Lord-in-waiting to King George V, becoming a favourite tennis partner of the monarch.

In the midst of those dark times, Mahatma Gandhi returned to Bombay from South Africa and Willingdon was one of the first persons to welcome him and invite him to Government House for a formal meeting.

In 1917, the year before Willingdon's resignation of the governorship, a severe famine broke out in the Kheda region of the Bombay Presidency, which had far-reaching effects on the economy and left farmers in no position to pay their taxes.

Kheda thus became the setting for Gandhi's first satyagraha in India, and, with support from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Narhari Parikh, Mohanlal Pandya, and Ravishankar Vyas, organised a Gujarat sabha.

For his actions there, in relation to governance and the war effort, Willingdon was on 3 June 1918 appointed by the King as a Knight Grand Commander of the Order of the Star of India.

Willingdon appointed A. Subbarayalu Reddiar as his premier and Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn (a former Governor General of Canada), opened the first meeting of the Legislative Assembly.

[13] Following a number of cases of arson, looting, and assaults,[14] Willingdon declared martial law just before the government of India sent in a large force to quell the riots.

[18] It was announced on 5 August 1926 that George V had, by commission under the royal sign-manual and signet, approved the recommendation of his British prime minister, Stanley Baldwin, to appoint Willingdon as his representative in Canada.

The sitting Conservative British Cabinet had initially not considered Willingdon as a candidate for the governor generalcy, as he was seen to have less of the necessary knowledge of affairs and public appeal that other individuals held.

Though this was not formalised until the enactment of the Statute of Westminster on 11 December 1931, the concept was brought into practice at the start of Willingdon's tenure as Governor General of Canada.

Accordingly, in 1928, the United Kingdom appointed its first High Commissioner to Canada thus effectively ending the governor general's, and Willingdon's, diplomatic role as the British government's envoy to Ottawa.

His following journey to Ottawa to take up residence in the country's official royal and viceroyal home, Rideau Hall, was just the first of many trips Willingdon took around Canada, meeting with a variety of Canadians and bringing with him what was described as "a sense of humour and an air of informality to his duties.

Willingdon did not cease diplomatic life altogether: he undertook a goodwill mission to South America, representing the Ibero-American Institute, and chaired the British committee on the commissioning of army officers.

The next year, however, on 12 August, the Marquess of Willingdon died at 5 Lygon Place, near Ebury Street, in London, and his ashes were interred in Westminster Abbey.