With the death of his elder brother in 1904, he became heir to his father's Earldom, and was then styled Lord Dalzell.
He succeeded to the title of Earl of Carnwath upon his father's death on 8 March 1910.
Posted to the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve with the outbreak of war in 1914 he was attached to the Air Service.
Married on 23 July 1910 to Maude Maitland Savile,[1] the Earl had no children.
Upon Lord Carnwath's death in 1931, the Earldom passed to his uncle, Arthur Dalzell.