Bobby Spencer, as he was known familiarly, entered the House of Commons in 1880 as Liberal member for North Northamptonshire. No less a person than Gladstone described his maiden speech as "highly effective".

In July 1887 he married Margaret Baring, daughter of the first Lord Revelstoke. This shy woman, who disliked parties and was totally free from snobbery, might seem an odd wife for the one-time socialite Bobby Spencer who, if Frederick Ponsonby spoke the truth, "should not have been but distinctly was a snob". The marriage, however, was a happy one. He shared her love of music and enjoyed playing her accompaniments while she in turn took the deepest interest in his parliamentary career. When on 4 July 1906 his wife died, all the warmth and happiness of family life died with her. Her sister Susan, who had married the royal physician, Sir James Reid, did what she could for her desolate nephews and nieces; but she saw too little of them to be of real help, although when their father inherited the title in 1910 and moved into Althorp, there were great Christmas gatherings of Spencers and Reids.

Shattered by the loss of his wife, the once lighthearted Bobby Spencer froze into a remote and chilly character, who did his duty by his children but failed to develop any warm or loving relationship with them. For the rest of his life he wore tokens of mourning and wrote on black-edged paper. He never spoke of his wife. Little Margaret, who had been named after her dead mother, knew nothing about her and never heard her name mentioned.

Although he regained his seat in 1900 and for a while served as Junior Whip, Spencer made little impact on political life, being known to fame chiefly as the best-dressed man in the House of Commons. The only offices he held were ones which, though in origin political, were in practice concerned with duties about the Court.In 1886 he had been made groom-in-waiting, in 1895 Vice-Chamberlain, and finally in 1905 Lord Chamberlain of the Household. Since this last post was
always held by a peer, he was now created Viscount Althorp. His father had filled the same position; but what had been for Frederick Spencer a pleasant retiring post after a lifetime spent in the Navy, was for the son the peak of a career which in the course of the years had come to centre not on Parliament and politics but on the Court and the Royal Family. The position of Lord Chamberlain suited Spencer admirably. Like his royal master, Edward VII, he was an expert on
dress and etiquette, on uniforms and medals; and he shared Edward's mania for punctuality. He frequently accompanied the king when travelling abroad, and in consequence, amassed a remarkable collection of foreign Orders. Staying with Queen Alexandra's Danish relations, he
found the food just as dull and the entertainment just as tedious as his half-brother had done some forty years previously. 

After Edward VII's death, Spencer remained on as Lord Chamberlain to George V but, in 1911, resigned because of ill-health and retired to Althorp. In the summer of 1912 he entertained King George and Queen Mary who had come to attend army manoeuvres, which that year centred on Northampton.When war broke out in August 1914, he was of course
too old for active service; but he wore the uniform of Honorary Colonel of a battalion of the Northamptonshire Regiment, and interested himself in the doings of the troops who camped in the park and used it as a training ground. His two sons were both in the fighting services. When the war ended, Lord Spencer settled down once more to the comparatively uneventful life of a country magnate. His health, however, was not good and he died suddenly.
The Spencers of Althorp, Georgina Battiscombe
 

Source: Leo van de Pas