On 1 September 1862, upon the death of his elder brother, Byron Noel, Viscount Ockham – who had succeeded his grandmother, Lady Byron, as twelfth Baron Wentworth – Ralph himself became thirteenth Baron Wentworth, and Viscount Ockham (the courtesy title of Lord Lovelace's heir-apparent).
[1] Taking little part in public life, he read widely and showed independent if rather erratic judgment.
In early life he was a bold Alpine climber, he spent much time in the Alps, and in 1887 made the first ascent of the Aiguille Noire de Peuterey with his guide, Emile Rey;[2][3]: 89 a peak of the Dolomites also bears his name.
His intimate acquaintance with French, German, and English literature was combined with a fine taste in music and painting.
This vigorous if somewhat uncritical polemic purported to be a vindication of Lovelace's grandmother, Lady Byron, from the aspersions made upon her after the "revelations" of Harriet Beecher Stowe in 1869–70.
The earldom of Lovelace devolved on his half-brother Lionel Fortescue King, son of the first earl by his second wife.