In 1863 he married Sarah Ann Mason. From 1864 onwards, he worked as assistant secretary of the Royal Geographical Society (effectively, he was the secretary, since the senior post was occupied by a noble figurehead). He sold his personal Lepidoptera collection to Frederick DuCane Godman and Osbert Salvin and began to work mostly on beetles (cerambycids, carabids, and cicindelids). From 1868 to 1869 and in 1878 he was president of the Entomological Society of London. In 1871 he was elected a fellow of the Linnaean Society, and in 1881 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society.