He has spoken of his great-uncle, John Chartres, "called [the] 'Mystery Man of the Treaty' was a member of Sinn Féin and a Protestant civil servant.

[11] In November 1995, Chartres was enthroned as the Bishop of London,[12] also becoming Prelate of the Order of the British Empire,[13] Dean of the Chapels Royal and a Privy Counsellor.

[15] On 12 September 2009 he presided at the marriage of Lord Frederick Windsor to actress Sophie Winkleman at the Chapel Royal in Hampton Court Palace.

In October 2005, he joined Marianne Suhr at St Giles in the Fields, London WC2, to launch a new maintenance project for the capital's historic churches.

[16] In January 2006, Chartres was criticised by the media for his decision to spend Easter on a cruise ship giving lectures on theology rather than attend the services at St Paul's Cathedral.

Michael O'Leary, boss of the low-cost airline Ryanair, responded that "the Bishop of London has got empty churches – presumably if no one went on holidays perhaps they might turn up and listen to his sermons.

"[21] Also, after criticism that his taking flights for "diocese work" as well as retaining a chauffeur-driven car were against the ideals of this campaign, he pledged not to fly for a year.

[23] Lord Chartres serves as an ambassador for wildlife charity WWF and as a patron of various other organisations, including: In 1982, Chartres married Caroline (eldest daughter of Sir Alan McLintock), then a freelance writer and now the commissioning editor of a publishing house, with whom he has four children: Alexander, Sophie, Louis and Clio.

On 12 October 2017, it was announced that Chartres would be created a life peer, to sit on the crossbenches in the House of Lords, having previously sat on the Bishops' bench.

Taking the title of Baron Chartres, of Wilton in the County of Wiltshire, he was introduced to the Upper House as a Lord Temporal on 7 November 2017.