Political career
From 1899 to 1903, the Hon. Walter Rice served as assistant private secretary to Lord George Hamilton, the Secretary of State for India. From 1903 to 1905, he was assistant secretary to the First Lord of the Admiralty, Lord Selborne. After the Conservative government resigned in 1905, Rice travelled extensively in the Middle East and the Orient.
In January 1910, he was elected MP for Brighton, being re-elected in December. His majority of 4,000 was, he was to comment later, unusually high in a period when average electorates were not large. In 1911, the Hon. Walter Rice became 7th Baron Dynevor on the death of his father. Thereafter, he became increasingly involved with the politics of his native Carmarthenshire. Vice-president of the Carmarthenshire Conservatives in 1912, he was also President of the West Wales Conservatives to 1914, when Conservative re-organisation saw him become President of the South Wales Conservatives, a post he held until 1938.
During the Great War, Lord Dynevor served in the Ministry of Munitions from 1916. Thereafter, he served on the Unionist Devolution Committee, considering the recommendations of the Speaker's Conference on Devolution.
In his locality, he served as a member of Llandeilo Rural District Council representing Llandyfeisant, a very small parish which sat largely within the Dynevor Castle estate. In 1919, he was elected to the Carmarthenshire County Council for Llandeilo, capturing a traditionally Liberal seat as an independent. He retained this seat until increasing deafness forced him to resign in 1935.
Throughout the inter-war years, Lord Dynevor was a key figure in Welsh Conservative politics, as well as the Carmarthenshire territorials. In 1928, Lord Dynevor became Lord Lieutenant of Carmarthenshire. Forced to resign from his offices in 1938 due to increasing deafness, Lord Dynevor was praised for his record of public service.
