Lowry-Corry's father, a younger son of
Somerset Lowry-Corry, 2nd Earl Belmore, represented County Tyrone in
parliament continuously for forty-seven years (1826–1873), and was a member of
Lord Derby's third ministry (1866–1868) as
Vice-President of the Council and afterwards as
First Lord of the Admiralty. Lowry-Corry was thus brought up in close touch with Conservative party politics, but it is said to have been his winning personality and social accomplishments rather than his political connections that recommended him to the favourable notice of
Benjamin Disraeli, who in 1866 made Lowry-Corry his private secretary. From this time till the statesman's death in 1881 Corry maintained his connection with Disraeli, the relations between the two men being more intimate and confidential than usually subsist between a private secretary and his political chief. When Disraeli resigned office in 1868 Lowry-Corry declined various offers of public employment to be free to continue his services, now unpaid, to the Conservative leader. When the latter returned to power in 1874, Corry resumed his position as official private secretary to the prime minister. He accompanied Disraeli (who in 1876 had been ennobled as Earl of Beaconsfield) to the
Congress of Berlin in 1878, where he acted as one of the secretaries of the special embassy of Great Britain. In the latter year he was awarded the
CB, in the Civil Division. which was then his country residence and ultimately inherited in 1889 from his maternal aunt, Lady Charlotte Barbara Lyster. Lord Rowton is also well-remembered as a philanthropist as the originator of the
Rowton Houses, six large hostels for working men which were much better than existing
lodging houses. He was inspired by projects of that kind founded by
Lord Iveagh in
Dublin and at the time of his death was chairman of both the Rowton Houses Company and the
Guinness Trust. ==Personal life==