Devonport was elected as a
Liberal Member of Parliament for
Devonport in the
1892 general election. He worked hard for a number of years on ensuring that the more than £1m within
Patriotic Fund was unlocked and made available for the purposes that it had been donated. He was appointed a
deputy lieutenant of
Buckinghamshire in 1901. In 1905, he was appointed
Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade, assisting the
President of the Board of Trade,
David Lloyd George. He was aligned with the
Liberal Imperialist grouping in the Liberal Party, and was one of the three sitting Liberal MPs who joined the Liberal Imperial Council prior to the 1900 general election (together with
Robert William Perks and
Andrew Provand). He was created a
baronet, of Wittington in the Parish of
Medmenham in the
County of Buckingham, on 22 July 1908 and became a member of the
Privy Council in 1909. He retired from the lower house after the
January 1910 general election. He played an important part in the passage of the
Port of London Bill in 1908 and served as unpaid chairman of the
Port of London Authority from 1909 until 1925. He was elevated to the
peerage as
Baron Devonport,
of Wittington in the County of Buckingham on 15 July 1910. It was reported in
The New York Times that he declined to contribute to party funds in return for the peerage, feeling that his party contribution and unpaid services in relation to the Port of London were great enough to warrant the distinction without payment. After proposing to submit the related correspondence to the press, no money was exchanged. This did not save him from being the subject of a savage
epigram by
Hilaire Belloc:
The grocer Hudson Kearley, he When purchasing his barony Considered first, we understand, The title of Lord Sugarsand, Or then again he might have been Lord Underweight of Margarine: But being of the nobler sort He took the title Devonport. He was appointed as
Minister of Food Control in December 1916 by Lloyd George and he submitted a proposal for compulsory
rationing in May 1917, seemingly delayed as to protect the interests of retailers. He came under attack, particularly from
Noel Pemberton Billing, with insinuations of
war profiteering. On 1 June 1917 he resigned due to "ill health". Announced in the
1917 Birthday Honours he was created
Viscount Devonport,
of Wittington in the County of Buckingham on 22 June 1917. Wittington was his estate where Wittington House was constructed in 1897 based on Sir
Reginald Blomfield's design. Bloomfield was asked to significantly enlarge the house in 1908. The gardens of Kearley's estate were maintained by hundreds of gardeners. ==In literature and popular culture==