His mother was the daughter of a successful Mayfair haberdasher who had bought a country estate, Broughton House, near Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire.

Elizabeth inherited Burford Lodge, Dorking, where they created a celebrated garden at the foot of Box Hill.

[note 2] They had three sons and one daughter: In 1874 he unsuccessfully contested Gloucester as a Conservative, however in 1875 he was elected for Mid-Surrey, which included a large portion of south London.

He was chiefly responsible for moving the Society from its expensive Kensington site to a more practical home in Westminster in 1904.

[3] In 1892 he succeeded Sir Sydney Waterlow as treasurer of St Bartholomew's Hospital and held the office for 12 years.

In that time he founded the Lawrence Scholarship in memory of his father, and was a member of the Council of King Edward's Hospital Fund also making donations.

He was created a Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (KCVO) in the November 1902 Birthday Honours list,[4][5] and was invested with the insignia by King Edward VII at Buckingham Palace on 18 December 1902.

He was a well-known collector of objets d'art, particularly oriental, especially Japanese, art, western porcelain, and old lace.