Career
He was Permanent Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs from 1854 to 1873. Hammond entered the Civil Service in 1823. He served as Permanent Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs from 1854 to 1873, a post previously held by his father.
He was sworn of the Privy Council in 1866 and elevated to the peerage as Baron Hammond, of Kirkella in the Town and County of the Town of Kingston-upon-Hull, in 1874.
He was a regular contributor in the House of Lords between 1875 and 1880. Lord Hammond married Mary Frances, daughter of Major-General Lord Robert Kerr, in 1846.
They had three daughters. Lady Hammond died in London in June 1888, aged 72.
Lord Hammond survived her by two years and died in April 1890, aged 87.
The barony died with him as he had no sons. There is a marble bust of Lord Hammond by Henry Weekes at the Foreign Office, London.