[citation needed] In 1900, the company took over the construction of the Great Northern and City Railway in London and after completion in 1904 ran it for four years.

[4] In 1907 he established an investment company, Whitehall Securities Corporation Ltd which, under the direction of his son Clive Pearson, played an important role in the development of British airlines in the 1930s.

In 1889, Porfirio Diaz, the President of Mexico, invited Pearson to his country to build a railroad—the Tehuantepec Railway—from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean.

Pearson then brought in Anthony Lucas to help spot 20 drilling locations, developing areas at Jáltipan, Capacan, Tecuanapa, and Soledad.

The associated violence and turmoil had a negative effect on foreign investors in Mexico's oil industry.

In October 1918 Pearson sold a substantial portion of Mexican Eagle stock to Calouste Gulbenkian, on behalf of Royal Dutch Shell, which took over its management.

[9] He held the seat at the 1895 general election and retained it until 1910[10] when he was raised to the peerage as Baron Cowdray, of Midhurst in the County of Sussex.

Lord Cowdray died in his sleep at Dunecht House, Aberdeenshire on 1 May 1927, aged 70, leaving a fortune of £4m, but instead of following primogeniture it was evenly divided into 10 parts.