[1] He was a very active Freemason, an enthusiastic temperance campaigner, and an ardent social reformer.
Born at Paris and brought up at Stoneleigh Abbey, Warwickshire[2] in a noble family (his father was Chandos Leigh, 1st Baron Leigh from 1839), he was educated at Harrow and Trinity College, Cambridge.
[3][4] At the age of sixteen, he attempted to enlist in the British Army to serve in the Crimean War and after leaving university went on a tour with three friends of Egypt, Palestine and Constantinople before studying for ministry in the Church of England at Wells Theological College.
Later, he held incumbencies at All Saints Leamington and St Mary's, Bryanston Square.
In 1906 he received a patent to act as Provincial Grand Master of Herefordshire, taking sole charge of all lodges in that county.