Background
Elphinstone was the son of Lieutenant-Colonel James Drummond Fullerton Elphinstone, fourth son of the Honorary
Conservative politician representative peer
Elphinstone was the son of Lieutenant-Colonel James Drummond Fullerton Elphinstone, fourth son of the Honorary
William Elphinstone, third son of Charles Elphinstone, 10th Lord Elphinstone. His mother was Anna Maria, daughter of Vice-Admiral Sir Edward Buller and Gertrude van Cortlandt (descendant of Stephanus Van Cortlandt, the Schuyler family and the de Peyster family from British North America). Elphinstone served as a Lord-in-Waiting (government whip in the House of Lords) under Benjamin Disraeli from 1874 to 1880 and under Lord Salisbury from 1885 to 1886 and from 1886 to 1889.
In 1885 he was created Baron Elphinstone, of Elphinstone in the County of Haddington, in the Peerage of the United Kingdom.
Lord Elphinstone married Lady Constance Euphemia, daughter of Alexander Murray, 6th Earl of Dunmore, in 1864. Lady Elphinstone died in March 1922, and lived in Pinewood, Windlesham, Surrey.