Badeley entered the Parliament Office in 1897 and was Principal Clerk and Taxing Officer at the Judicial Department of the House of Lords from 1919 to 1930. He was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1920 and became Assistant Clerk of the Parliaments in 1930. In 1934 he was promoted to Clerk of the Parliaments, an office he held until 1949. He was made a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) in 1935 and elevated to the peerage as Baron Badeley, of Badley in the County of Suffolk, in 1949. After his retirement the Marquess of Salisbury said of him: "He could almost be described as the father of the house, for he had been the guide, philosopher and friend to whom they had gone in their troubles". He was a regular contributor in the House of Lords during his two years as a member.
