Anglo-Irish Wesleyan, radical Liberal politician, born in Co Cavan and educated at the Royal School, Cavan Town, and Wesley College, Dublin. From 1880 he was a London tea merchant. In 1888 he was appointed Ramsay MacDonald's private secretary. Standing unsuccessfully as a Liberal for Truro in 1886 he was returned for Islington West in 1892. He retained the seat until the coupon election of 1918 when his pledge of loyalty to Lloyd George was not accepted and the seat was taken by a Unionist. Appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Education in 1905, as understudy to Augusstine Birrell, he was seen as being ineffective in debates and made the scapegoat for failed education legislation.
Lord Lieutenant of Cavan from 1907, he was made a Privy Counsellor in 1908. He and his brother Arthur Steel Lough in 1896 pioneered the Drummully Agricultural Co-operative & Dairy Society; today, known as Lakeland Dairies, is an international organisation. He died on 11 January 1922.