Career
He first served as acting Governor of British Ceylon. From 1873-1874, he served as Governor of the Leeward Islands. From 1874-1880, he served as Governor of Trinidad and Tobago.
From 1882-1887, he served as Governor of British Guiana.
He was the first Governor of Trinidad to occupy the Government House, now known as the President"s House. He entered the Colonial Office as a clerk in 1854.
In 1858, while at the Colonial Office, he served as a special messenger to William Ewart Gladstone who was then the Lord High Commissioner of the Ionian Islands. He then was appointed private secretary to the Permanent Under-Secretary, Sir Frederic Rogers in 1862.
In 1865, he was selected to accompany the Governor of Jamaica, John Peter Grant, as Colonial Secretary of that colony.
Lady Irving died in 1903. The couple had no children.