Career
Adair first stood for election to Parliament in April 1843, when he was the runner-up at a by-election for the Eastern division of Suffolk. He was unsuccessful again at a by-election for the borough of Cambridge in July 1845, but at the 1847 general election he was elected as one of Cambridge"s two MPs. He was defeated at the 1852 general election, but that result was overturned on petition and he was returned to the House of Commons at the resulting by-election in August 1854.
He was unseated again in 1857 general election, and did not contest the 1859 general election.
He was appointed High Sheriff of Antrim in 1853. A Fellow of the Royal Society, he succeeded to the baronetcy in 1869, on the death of his father.
He was ennobled on 10 April 1873, as Baron Waveney, of South Elmham in the County of Suffolk. The Adair family owned extensive estates in, and have been described as the "founding fathers" of the town.
The town is built on land given to the Adair family by King Charles 1 in 1626, on the provision that the town holds two annual fairs and a free Saturday market in perpetuity.
In 1865 Adair began the construction in the demesne of Castle, a substantial family residence in the Scottish baronial style. The castle was not completed until 1887, and was demolished in 1957 after having lain empty for some years and being vandalised. The site is now a car park.
In 1870, Adair donated The People"s Park to, engaging fifty labourers to work for six months landscaping lieutenant