The
royal Households of the United Kingdom are the
organised offices and support systems for the
British Royal Family, along with their
immediate (royal) families. Alongside
The Royal Household,
which supports the Sovereign, every other member of the Royal
Family who undertakes public duties has his own separate Household
— these vary considerably in size, from a handful of staff shared
by Princes
William and
Harry, to the
Household of
the Prince of Wales, which is traditionally the largest
Household beside
The Household.
These Households are
all separate from The Royal Household, and are funded from
the Civil List annuities paid to the their respective masters for
their public duties, all of which is however reimbursed to HM Treasury
by The Queen.
The Royal Household is a permanent establishment of relatively
unchanging size and composition, the Households of other members of
the Royal Family vary in size depending upon their age and their
social and political role — the Household of the Prince of Wales is
invariably the largest when the Prince is an adult actively
involved in royal duties, and other Households are comparatively
modest.
The Royal Household
As presently arranged, the Royal Household is coordinated by the
part-time
Lord Chamberlain (The Rt
Hon
The Earl Peel
GCVO PC DL since 12 October 2006), and
organised into a number of functionally separate units.
Heads of Departments of the Royal Household
The
Private
Secretary to the Sovereign (The Rt Hon Christopher Geidt CVO OBE since 8 September
2007), under whom works the Private Secretary's Office, but who
also has control of the Press Office, the Queen's
Archives
, and the
Defence Services
Secretary's Office. He serves as principal advisor to
the Sovereign and the principal channel of communication between
the Sovereign and his or her Governments. Besides these, he also
manages the Sovereign's official programme and correspondence
The
Keeper of the
Privy Purse has responsibility for the Sovereign's
personal finances and those to do with semi-private concerns, along
with, as
Treasurer to the
Queen oversight of the
civil
list. The two positions are held together and, since 2002, they
have both been held by Sir
Alan Reid KCVO
The
Master of the
Household, since 2005, has been
AVM David
Walker OBE MVO
FRAeS, who has
overall responsibility for the domestic workings of the
Household.
The
Lord Chamberlain's
Office, led by its
Comptroller (currently, and since 2006,
Lt Col Andrew Ford), is responsible
for official royal occasions.
The
Royal Collection is overseen by
its
Director, since
1996, Sir
Hugh Roberts KCVO
MA FSA
Each of these Heads of Department reports to the Lord Chamberlain,
and is a member of the Lord Chamberlain's Committee.
Other units
The
Royal Almonry,
Ecclesiastical Household, and
Medical Household are functionally
separate but for accounting purposes are the responsibility of the
Keeper of the Privy Purse and Treasurer to the Queen.
The
Lord Steward is notionally
responsible for the Department of
Master of the Household, but only
has a ceremonial role.
The Master of
the Horse is in a similar position, being nominally in charge
of the Royal
Mews
.
The
Crown Equerry has day to day operation
of the Royal
Mews, but is part of the Lord Chamberlain's
Office. The
Central Chancery of
the Orders of Knighthood is also under the Lord Chamberlain's
Office, as is the office of the
Marshal of the Diplomatic
Corps.
Certain independent, and normally honorific, posts include
Master of the Queen's Music,
Poet Laureate, and
Astronomer Royal. The
Queen's Bargemaster,
Warden of the Swans, and
Marker of the Swans, perform more
prosaic and less celebrated functions.
Technically members of the Household, the offices of
Treasurer of the Household,
Comptroller of the
Household and
Vice-Chamberlain of the
Household are held by senior government
whips in the House of Commons. In the House
of Lords, the Government Chief Whip is usually appointed
Captain of the
Gentlemen-at-Arms and the Deputy Chief Whip as
Captain of the Yeomen of the
Guard, with junior whips appointed as
Lords-in-Waiting or Baronesses-in-Waiting.
Occasionally these officers are called upon to undertake Household
duties, especially the Vice-Chamberlain, who is responsible for
writing regular parliamentary reports for the Queen.
The royal
residences (see list of
British Royal Residences) in current use are cared for and
maintained by the Royal Household Property Section directly from
the grant-in-aid provided by Parliament
, whereas Balmoral Castle and Sandringham House are
privately owned and maintained. The unoccupied royal
residences (including the Tower of London) are run by the
Historic Royal Palaces Agency, which
is self-funding.
The UK Royal Household is separated into two separate parts, one
for England and one for Scotland, as further noted below.
England and Wales
The sovereign's domestics were his officers of state, and the
leading dignitaries of the palace were the principal administrators
of the kingdom. The royal household itself had, in its turn, grown
out of an earlier and more primitive thegnhood, and among the most
eminent and powerful of the king's
thegns were
his dishthegn, his bowerthegn, and his horsethegn or staller. In
Normandy at the time of the Conquest a similar arrangement,
imitated from the French court, had long been established, and the
Norman dukes, like their overlords the kings of France, had their
seneschal or steward, their chamberlain and their constable. After
the Conquest the ducal household of Normandy was reproduced in the
royal household of England; and since, in obedience to the spirit
of
feudalism, the great offices of the
first had been made hereditary, the great offices of the second
were made hereditary also, and were thenceforth held by the
grantees and their descendants as holder of tenure in grand
serjeanty of the crown.
The consequence was that they passed out of immediate relation to
the practical conduct of affairs either in both state and court or
in the one or the other of them. The steward and
Lord High Chamberlain of England were
superseded in their political functions by the
Justiciar and
Treasurer of England, and in their
domestic functions by the
Lord Steward
and
Lord Chamberlain of the
household. The marshal of England took the place of the constable
of England in the royal palace, and was associated with him in the
command of the royal armies.
In due course, however, the marshalship as well as the
constableship became hereditary, and, although the
Constable and
Earl Marshal of England retained their military
authority until a comparatively late period, the duties they had
successively performed about the palace had been long before
transferred to the master of the horse.
In these circumstances
the holders of the original great offices of state and the
household ceased to attend the court except on occasions of
extraordinary ceremony, and their representatives either by
inheritance or by special appointment have ever since continued to
appear at coronations and some other
public solemnities, such as the State Opening of Parliament or
trials by the House of
Lords
.
The materials available for a history of the English royal
household are somewhat scanty and obscure. The earliest record
relating to it is of the reign of
Henry II and is contained in the Black
Book of the
Exchequer. It enumerates the
various inmates of the king's palace and the daily allowances made
to them at the period at which it was compiled. Hence it affords
valuable evidence of the antiquity and relative importance of the
court offices to which it refers, notwithstanding that it is silent
as to the functions and formal subordination of the persons who
filled them. In addition to this record we have series of far
later, but for the most part equally meagre, documents bearing more
or less directly on the constitution of the royal household, and
extending, with long intervals, from the reign of
Edward III to the reign of
William and Mary. Among them, however, are
what are known as the
Black
Book of the Household and the
Statutes of Eltham, the first compiled in
the reign of
Edward IV and the
second in the reign of
Henry
VIII from which a good deal of detailed information may be
gathered concerning the arrangements of the court in the 15th and
16th centuries.
The Statutes of Eltham were meant for the practical guidance merely
of those who were responsible for the good order and the sufficient
supply of the sovereign's household at the time they were issued.
The great officers of state and the household whom we have
particularly mentioned do not of course exhaust the catalogue of
them. We have named those only whose representatives are still
dignitaries of the court and functionaries of the palace. If the
reader consults
Hallam (
Middle
Ages, i. 181 seq.),
Freeman (
Norman Conquest,
i. 91 seq., and v. 426 seq.) and
Stubbs (
Const. Hist. i.
343, seq.), he will be able himself to fill in the details of the
outline we have given above.
But the Black Book of the Household, besides being a sort of
treatise on princely magnificence generally, professes to be based
on the regulations established for the governance of the court by
Edward III, who, it affirms, was "the first setter of certeynties
among his domesticall meyne, upon a grounded rule" and whose palace
it describes as "the house of very policie and flowre of England";
and it may therefore possibly, and even probably, take us back to a
period much more remote than that at which it was actually put
together.
Various orders, returns and accounts of the reigns of
Elizabeth,
James I,
Charles I,
Charles II, and William and Mary throw
considerable light on the organization of particular sections of
the royal household in times nearer to our own. Moreover, there
were several parliamentary inquiries into the expenses of the royal
household in connexion with the settlement or reform of the
civil list during the reigns of
George III,
George IV and
William IV. But they add
little or nothing to our knowledge of the subject in what was then
its historical as distinguished from its contemporary aspects. So
much, indeed, is this the case that, on the accession of
Queen Victoria,
Chamberlayne's
Present State of
England, which contains a catalogue of the officials at the
court of
Queen Anne, was
described by
Lord
Melbourne the prime minister as the "only authority" which the
advisers of the crown could find for their assistance in
determining the appropriate constitution and dimensions of the
domestic establishment of a queen regnant.
In its main outlines the existing organization of the royal
household is essentially the same as it was under the Tudors or the
Plantagenets. It is now, as it was then, divided into three
principal departments, at the head of which are severally the lord
steward, the lord chamberlain and the master of the horse, and the
respective provinces of which may be generally described as "below
stairs," "above stairs" and "out of doors." The duties of these
officials, and the various officers under their charge are dealt
with in the articles under those headings. When the reigning
sovereign is a queen, the royal household is in some other respects
rather differently arranged from that of a king and a queen
consort.
When there is a king and a queen consort there is a separate
establishment "above stairs" and "out of doors" for the queen
consort. She has a
Lord
Chamberlain's department of her own, and all the ladies of the
court from the
Mistress of the
Robes to the
Maids of Honour are
in her service. At the commencement of the reign of Queen Victoria
the two establishments were combined, and on the whole considerably
reduced. On the accession of
Edward VII the
civil list was again reconstituted; and while the
household of the king and his consort became larger than during the
previous reign, there was a tendency towards increased efficiency
by abolishing certain offices which were either redundant or
unnecessary.
Scotland
The Royal Household in Scotland includes offices of personal,
honorary and state appointments.
The Great Officers of the Royal Household are:
The Royal Household in Scotland also includes a number of other
hereditary and non-hereditary offices:
The
Keeper of Dumbarton
Castle and the Governor of Edinburgh
Castle
are non-hereditary offices.
Household of HRH The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
The
Household of the Prince Philip, Duke of
Edinburgh provides the administrative support to
His Royal Highness
The Prince Philip, Duke
of Edinburgh, the
prince consort.
It is
based at Buckingham
Palace
, and is headed by his Private Secretary — the Treasurer (part-time 1970-1976) was formerly the
senior officer, but this post is now vacant. There are also
an
Equerry (a
major or
equivalent from any of the three armed services), and two temporary
equerries (usually a
Captain from the
Royal Marines, and a Captain from the
Grenadier Guards).
Treasurers to the Duke of Edinburgh
Private Secretaries to the Duke of Edinburgh
Household of TRH The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of
Cornwall
The
Household of The Prince of
Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall is the organised
office and support system for His
Royal Highness The
Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, in his role as heir apparent to the thrones of the United
Kingdom
and the other Commonwealth realms, and for his consort
Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cornwall.
At the time of their 2009 Annual Review the Office of the Prince of
Wales had the full-time equivalent of 121 staff. The head of the
Household is the Principal
Private
Secretary, Sir
Michael Peat. Senior
officials include the Private Secretary, Mark Leishman; the
Master of the Household,
Wg Cdr Richard Pattle; the
Treasurer,
Leslie
Ferrar; Communications Secretary,
Patrick Harverson and Press Secretary,
Patrick Harrison; the Director of
The Prince's Charities, Sir
Tom Shebbeare KCVO; and the
Equerry, Maj Will Mackinlay.
In 2000 an
Official Harpist to the
Prince of Wales was appointed. The first holder of the office
was Miss
Catrin Finch. The Prince of
Wales revived a tradition of having Welsh harpists by appointing Ms
Finch. She was the first to receive a similar post since one was
last granted in 1871 by Queen
Victoria to John Thomas. In
2004 Catrin Finch was replaced by Miss Jemima Phillips, who in turn
was replaced by Miss Claire Jones in 2007.
The
Prince of Wales' Office is principally based at Clarence
House
, London
, but also
occupies rooms in the rest of St James's Palace
. There are also offices for official staff at
Highgrove
House
and Birkhall House,
The Prince of Wales's
private residences. In November 2006, The Prince of Wales bought
his first home in Wales
, the
Llwynywormwood estate near Llandovery
, Carmarthenshire
, which he plans to use when he and The Duchess of
Cornwall are visiting the country. The estate consists of an
ex-coachhouse and is set in almost of rolling parkland
Most of the expenses incurred in operating the office comes from
The Prince of Wales's private appanage, the
Duchy of Cornwall.
The only significant
costs met by grant-in-aid provided by
the Government is for the upkeep of Clarence House, and for official travel by air and rail, and for
communications support.
Details of The Prince's Senior Staff are available in his Office's
Annual Reports. The following titles all have "to/of The Prince of
Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall" suffixed when written in full.
Prior to the Prince's 2005 marriage, they were instead suffixed
"to/of The Prince of Wales".
Principal Private Secretaries
Private Secretaries
Masters of the Household
- 2008—: Wing Cdr Richard Pattle
- 2006–2008: Lt Col Sir Malcolm Ross
- 2005–2006: Kevin Knott
Deputy Masters of the Household
- 2005/6—: Andrew Farquharson
Treasurers
- 2006—: Leslie Ferrar
- —2005: Kevin Knott
Deputy Private Secretaries
Assistant Private Secretaries
- 2008: Shilpa Sinha
- 2008—: Sophie Densham
- 2006–2008: Anita Kumar
- 2006—: Jonathan Hellewell
- 2005–2007: Katy Golding
- 2005—: Joy Camm & Amanda MacManus
(each part-time)
- 2005–2005: Mrs Manon Williams
- ?–2005: Mark Leisham
- ?–2005: James Kidner
- ?–2005: Paul Kefford
Equerries
- 2008—: Maj Will Mackinlay
- 2006–2008: Sqn Ldr Jayne Casebury
- ?–2006: Wing Cdr Richard Pattle
- ?–2004/5:Maj Rupert Lendrum (Senior
Equerry)
Assistant Masters of the Household
- ?—: Virginia Carington
- as "Special Assistant" until 2007
- as "Assistant Master of the Household" since 2007
Household of TRH Prince William of Wales and Prince Henry of
Wales
A part-time Private Secretary to
Their Royal Highnesses
Princes
William and
Harry (
James Lowther-Pinkerton MVO
MBE Irish Guards (Rtd.)) was appointed in
the Household of the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall in
May 2005. In January 2009, a separate Household of HRH Prince
William of Wales and HRH Prince Henry of Wales was established,
headed by Lowther-Pinkerton. The Household's offices are in St
James's Palace; it shares funding and much of its staff with
Clarence House.
- Private Secretary to Prince William of Wales and Prince Henry
of Wales: Mr James
Lowther-Pinkerton MVO MBE Irish Guards (Retd.)
- Advisor to Prince William of Wales and Prince Henry of Wales:
Sir David Manning GCMG CVO
- Personal Private Secretary to Prince William of Wales and
Prince Henry of Wales: Miss Helen Asprey
- additionally, Mr Miguel Head, Assistant Press
Secretary, " has particular responsibility for The Princes within
the Clarence House Press Office"
Household of HRH The Duke of York
The
Household of The Duke of
York provides the administrative support for
His Royal Highness
The Prince Andrew, Duke of
York in his royal duties, along with his immediate family. From
1971 the
Duke of York, then The Prince
Andrew (aged 11 years), had the assistance of one of
The Queen's
Equeries when required. The first was Sqn Ldr
Peter Beer, who served until he was
replaced by Maj
George Broke
Royal Artillery in
1974, and Lt Cdr
Robert Guy
RN in 1977.
It was only with the appointment in 1980 of Sqn Ldr
Adam Wise, that the Prince could be said to have
acquired the assistance of his own staff — although he was still
shared with The Queen and
Prince Edward. In 1983, Wise
was promoted to
Wing Commander
and appointed Private Secretary to The Princes Andrew and Edward,
severing his link with The Royal Household. He left the Duke of
York's service in 1987, when Lt Col
Sean
O'Dwyer was appointed — also jointly with Prince Edward.
The Duke of York is now assisted by a Private Secretary,
Comptroller, Assistant Private Secretary,
Equerry, and Temporary Equerry. There are
also an Office Assistant, and a handful of personal staff including
cook and
butler.
The Duke of York's
Office is currently based at Buckingham Palace, and the Duke has a residence at The Royal Lodge
, Windsor
, into which he moved during 2004, from Sunninghill
Park
, Ascot
.
Private Secretaries to the Duke of York
Household of TRH The Earl and Countess of Wessex
The
Household of the Earl and Countess of Wessex
provides the administrative support to
His Royal Highness The Prince Edward, Earl of
Wessex, youngest son of The Queen, and of his wife
Her Royal Highness The Countess of Wessex.
It is
based at Buckingham
Palace, and is headed by his Private Secretary.
Private Secretaries to the Earl of Wessex
Household of HRH The Princess Royal
The
Household of the Princess
Royal provides the administrative support to
Her Royal Highness The Princess Anne, Princess Royal,
daughter of Her Majesty The Queen, Elizabeth II
of the United
Kingdom. It is based at Buckingham Palace, and is headed by the Private Secretary.
Private Secretaries to the Princess Royal
Lesser Households
Household of TRH The Duke and Duchess of Gloucester
- Private Secretary, Comptroller and Equerry, to the Duke &
Duchess of Gloucester: Maj. N.M. L. Barne, LVO
Household of TRH The Duke and Duchess of Kent
- Private Secretary to the Duke of Kent: Nick Adamson LVO
OBE
Household of TRH The Prince and Princess Michael of Kent
- Private Secretary to Prince Michael of Kent: Nick Chance
LVO
Household of HRH Princess Alexandra, the Hon. Lady Ogilvy
Lady in Waiting: Mrs Meriel Afia LVO
Former Households
Household of HM Queen Alexandra
Comptroller
Lords Chamberlain
Vice-Chamberlains
Equerries
Extra Equerries
Private Secretaries
Assistant Private Secretaries
Treasurers
Mistresses of the Robes
Ladies of the Bedchamber
Extra Ladies of the Bedchamber
Lords-in-Waiting
Women of the Bedchamber
- 1863-1865: Hon. Mrs Robert Bruce (extra 1865-?)
- 1863-1873: Hon. Mrs William George Grey (extra 1873-?)
- 1863-?: Hon. Mrs Edward Coke
- 1863-?: Mrs. Francis Stonor
- 1865-?: Hon. Mrs Arthur Hardinge
- 1872-1907: Lady Emily
Kingscote
- 1873-?: (Elizabeth) Charlotte Knollys
- 1893-1910: Mrs. Charles
Hardinge
- 1901-?: Lady Alice
Stanley
Maids of Honour
- 1901-1905: Hon. Dorothy Vivian
- 1901-?: Hon. Violet Vivian
- 1901-1905: Hon. Mary Dyke
- 1901-?: Hon. Sylvia Edwardes
- 1905-?: Margaret Dawnay
- 1905-?: Blanche Lacelles
- 1919-?: Hon. Lucia White
Surgeon-Apothecary
Surgeon
Physician Extraordinary
Laryngologist
Bacteriologist
Hon. Domestic Chaplain
Household of HM Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother
This is an
incomplete list of those who served in
Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon's
Household
- 1952–2002: HM Queen Elizabeth, Queen Mother's
"Household of Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother"
- 1936–1952: HM The Queen's "Household of The
Queen"
- included in HRH The Prince Albert, Duke of York's
"Household of The Duke of York"
Comptroller
Equerries
Extra Equerries
Temporary Equerries
Ladies-in-Waiting
Extra Ladies-in-Waiting
Ladies of the Bedchamber
Lord Chamberlain
Mistress of the Robes
Pages of Honour
Press Secretary
- 1956-2001: Sir John Griffin
Private Secretaries
- 1937-1946: Lt Col Richard Streatfield
- 1946-1951: Maj Thomas Harvey
- 1951-1956: Capt Oliver Dawnay
- 1956-1993: Sir Martin Gilliat
- 1993-2002: Sir Alastair Aird
Assistant Private Secretaries
Treasurers
Women of the Bedchamber
- 1937-1939: Lady Helen Graham
- 1937-1960: Lady Katharine Seymour
- 1937-1961: Marion Hyde, Lady Hyde
- 1937-1944: The Hon Lettice Bowlby
- 1939-?: Lady Adelaide Peel
- 1944-1947: Lady Mary Herbert
- 1947-2001: Lady Jean Rankin
- 1951-1961: The Hon Olivia Mulholland
- 1960-1993: The Rt Hon The Dowager Lady
Fermoy
- 1961-1963: Lady Mary Harvey
- 1965-2002: Dame Frances Campbell-Preston
- 1981-2002: Lady Angela Oswald
Extra Women of the Bedchamber
Temporary Women of the Bedchamber
- 1963-1965: Lady Caroline Douglas-Home
Apothecaries
Physicians
- 1936-?: George Frederick Still
- 1936-?: Sir John Weir
- 1936-?: Henry Letheby Tidy
- 1936-?: Daniel Thomas Davies
Surgeons
Surgeon-Apothecary
Notes and sources
External links
(the Duke of
Hamilton)
- Ninian
Crichton-Stuart
- the Earl of Mar
and Kellie
- the Duke of
Argyll
- Sir Charles Edward Maclean of Dunconnel Bt, 2nd
Baronet of Strachur and Glensluain, Baron Strachur, and 16th
Hereditary Keeper and Captain of Dunconnel in the Isles of The
Sea.
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