In 1910, Samuel Strang Steel stood, unsuccessfully, as the Liberal Unionist candidate for
Peebles and Selkirk in the two general elections that year. Samuel Strang Steel succeeded his father, William Strang Steel, at Philiphaugh in 1911. During the 1st World War he served, as a Major, with the
Lothians and Border Horse on the
Macedonian front. He was first commissioned into the
Duke of York's Own Loyal Suffolk Hussars on 20 March 1901. After the war he was elected at the
1918 general election as the MP for Ashford Kent, holding the seat until the
1929 election, when he lost the seat to the Rev.
Roderick Kedward, the Liberal Party candidate. He was Permanent Private Secretary to the Minister for Agriculture (Sir
Robert Sanders) (1923–24) and to the
Financial Secretary to the Treasury (
Walter Guinness) (1925). He was President of the Scottish Unionist Association (1937–38 and 1942–3). He was created a Baronet for "political and public services in Scotland" on 2 July 1938. Samuel Strang Steel was a Director of the
London and North Eastern Railway, which named a LNER Class B1 No 61244 locomotive 'Strang Steel', and of the Bank of Scotland. He served with distinction as a Forestry Commissioner (1932-1949). He built up the Scottish Co-operative Forestry Society Ltd which merged with the Scottish Woodland Owners' Association. During the war he was appointed Deputy Controller of the Home Grown Timber Production Department responsible for its activities in Scotland. He was a County Councillor for Selkirkshire and Convenor (1946). He was Lord Lieutenant of Selkirkshire from 1948 to 1956. He was a member of
The Queen's Bodyguard for Scotland, Royal Company of Archers, promoted to Ensign (1953). ==Succession==