 He was heavily involved in public life in the town, serving as a justice of the peace, as clerk of the Mount Gambier Local Court and clerk of the District Council of Mount Gambier East, as a member of the original committee of the Mount Gambier Institute, and as master of the Mount Gambier Freemason lodge.His brother, Rupert Ingleby, was a prominent Adelaide lawyer who had migrated two years before him.He was elected to the House of Assembly at the 1875 election, but resigned after only two years, stating that he preferred to focus on campaigning for the division of pastoral lands into smaller properties than carrying out the duties of a member of parliament.