Darbishire went into the trading business. He was associated with the East India merchant trade and had particular connections with Malaya and Singapore. He became one of the managing directors of Paterson Simons & Co, which traded between London, the Straits Settlements and the Federated Malay States. He became an acknowledged expert on trade with area and contributed the chapter on Commerce and Currency to the book One Hundred Years of Singapore: being some account of the capital of the Straits Settlements from its foundation by Sir Stamford Raffles on 6 February 1819 to the 6 February 1919 which was published in 1921.
In 1922, Darbishire was adopted as the Liberal candidate for the Wiltshire constituency of Westbury. Although the seat had been represented by both Conservatives and Liberals over the years, since it became a county seat in 1885 it had been Liberal for most of the time. At the 1918 general election a Coalition Conservative, Brigadier-General George Palmer had received the government ‘coupon’, the official letter of endorsement from Prime Minister David Lloyd George and the Conservative leader Bonar Law. Darbishire won the election of 1922 standing as a Liberal, defeating Palmer in a three-cornered contest.
At the next election however, Darbishire was in more difficulty. Although Westbury could be termed a traditional Liberal seat resting on foundations of Nonconformism and the Liberal tradition, the character of the seat was changing with industrialisation. The new Unionist candidate, Captain Shaw, seemed more in tune with the times than the old one and Darbishire probably suffered by his refusal to support the call for protectionism in motor tyre production made to him by workers in the industry locally. There was high unemployment amongst workers in the rubber industry in Melksham and Bradford on Avon. Elsewhere in the country the traditional Liberal policy of Free Trade was helping to re-unite the party and was proving a popular policy. In Westbury however it seemed less convincing to commentators on Liberal election prospects against the poor economic and industrial background in the area. Labour obviously tried to capitalise upon this situation and took the decision to abandon campaigning in Chippenham to concentrate on Westbury. They took votes from Darbishire but not enough to deprive him of the seat. At the 1924 general election however Unionist prospects were altogether brighter and in another three-cornered contest, Darbishire lost out to Captain Shaw.
Death
Darbishire did not get the chance to contest any more Parliamentary elections. He died aged 49 in Singapore general hospital in June 1925, having been taken ill a few days earlier. He had been taking a tour of the Far East travelling with his wife and had arrived in Singapore from Siam.
