 He served as Chairman of the Bristol Avon Flood Defences Committee from 1981 to 2000, and of the Wiltshire Magistrates' Courts Committee from 2001 to 2005, and was a Governor of Lackham College between 1986 and 1998.From 2004 to 2012 he was Lord Lieutenant of Wiltshire, retiring at the age of seventy-five, to be succeeded by Mrs Sarah Rose Troughton, a cousin of H. M. the Queen.As Lord Lieutenant he was also custos rotulorum, and his public duties included overseeing arrangements for visits to Wiltshire by members of the Royal Family and escorting them; representing H. M. the Queen at events, and presenting awards and medals on her behalf; liaising with the Wiltshire units of the Royal Navy, Army and Royal Air Force; leading the local magistracy as Chairman of the Lord Chancellor’s Advisory Committee on Justices of the Peace; and advising on nominations for national honours.