The government fell in December of that year, but returned to power in May 1835, when Grey resumed the post of Under-Secretary of State for War and the Colonies (succeeding William Ewart Gladstone).

He was then briefly Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster in 1841, with a seat in the cabinet for the first time until the Whigs were defeated in the general election that year.

The Whigs returned to power in July 1846 under Lord John Russell, who appointed Grey Home Secretary, the first of his three spells in this position.

The new baronet sat throughout the parliament in active support of Lord John Russell, until the collapse of the ministry after the scandal of the Durham Letter, and controversial Ecclesiastical Titles bull.

Traditional Whigs were Protestant, among them Grey, but the liberality of authorising a catholic hierarchy changed the nature of party politics.

Grey's first tenure at the Home Office notably saw him deal with relief efforts to the victims of the Great Famine of Ireland and trying to subdue the Irish rebellion of 1848.

The Conservative administration under the Earl of Derby which took office only lasted until June the following year, when Palmerston again became prime minister.

The train they were travelling in pulled in at the tiny village halt of Kingussie in the Highlands, where they were met on the platform by none other than William Gladstone.

As his only son had predeceased him, he was succeeded in the baronetcy by his grandson, Edward, who also became a prominent Liberal politician, serving as Foreign Secretary from 1905 to 1916, when he was raised to the peerage as Viscount Grey of Fallodon.

He was a keen reader of the classics, with a great knowledge of Latin, Greek, and Hebrew; Shakespeare's plays, Walter Scott's poetry were part of their education.