Please click here to view our media pack for more information on advertising and partnership opportunities with UnHerd. The soulless Edward was king. He was born on February 19, 1940 in Peoria, Illinois to Charles and Ruby (Schmidt) Lascelles. A shareholder got up to attack do-gooders who are fighting to reduce the lead content in petrol. Almost the only dishonest statement in this strikingly frank and often outspoken record comes in a letter to his successor, Michael Adeane, in which he says, It would not greatly distress me personally if I knew that all my diaries were going to be put in the fire as soon as I was dead. He would, in fact, have been greatly distressed by such a piece of vandalism, and he would have had every right to be so. [8], Lascelles's papers are now held in the Churchill Archives Centre at Churchill College, Cambridge. When Mrs Thatcher exposed his treachery six years later to the House of Commons, he was stripped of his knighthood.]. Terms of Service apply. Here, he reveals more of the Royal Familys intriguing secrets . In the following eight years I saw him day in and day out; I saw him sober, and often as near drunk as doesn't matter; I travelled twice across Canada with him; I camped and tramped with him through Central Africa; in fact, I probably knew him as well as any man. From Rock Island IL . But it was precisely this slightly detached view that made him such a good courtier. The extraordinary little book was Jane Eyre. [6] He had been appointed a Member of the Royal Victorian Order in 1926, before his promotion to Knighthood in that Order in 1939. He's good for another seven years at least.'. [The King managed to pull through.]. We shall have to lock him up.'. The surname was introduced into England by followers of William the Conqueror after 1066. Notable people with the surname include: Alan Lascelles (1887-1981) "Tommy" Lascelles was Private Secretary to both King George VI and Queen Elizabeth II She survives. Martin Charteris [the Queens private secretary, later Provost of Eton] to lunch at Claridges. BBC News - Queen's cousin Lord Harewood dies. Thomas Lascelles passed away on August 15, 2015 at the age of 75 in Viola, Illinois. The Lascelles Family - Page 4 - The Royal Forums He also described a wise Sovereign as one who has at heart the true interest of the country, the constitution, and the Monarchy. 'It's just some election dodge of old Baldwin's. Lydia is also a pen name of June Woolerton, a journalist and writer with over twenty years experience in TV, radio, print and online. Won MC during WWI, served briefly in India, where he met his future wife Joan, the daughter of the Viceroy. Lascelles became the Assistant Private Secretary to George V in the latter months of 1935. The Queen tells me she was much amused by the attempt of Winston Churchill during the war to call a dreadnought HMS Oliver Cromwell. Lascelles was not the sort of Royalist who was in it for the memorial plates and days out at the park. British Army officer and courtier (18871981), Assistant Private Secretary to the Sovereign, Secretary to the Governor General of Canada, Frederic Thesiger, 1st Viscount Chelmsford, Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath, Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order, Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George, Royal Household Long and Faithful Service Medal, "A most devoted subject and a most exacting critic", "The Papers of Sir Alan Lascelles | ArchiveSearch", doi.org/10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U166201, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Alan_Lascelles&oldid=1152738341, Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath, Companions of the Order of St Michael and St George, Knights Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order, Assistant Private Secretaries to the Sovereign, Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles with unsourced statements from February 2023, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0. Please share a memory of Jeffery to include in a keepsake book for family and friends. The job was with George V, who he once described as the godhead but Lascelles had said in his resignation letter: Very few men can go on being private secretaries all their lives, and I am not one of them. And besides, he pointed out, when the king died, he would be in a very difficult position, to put it mildly, having told the next-in-line exactly what he thought of him. As either a private secretary or assistant private secretary, Lascelles had an important role to . From time to time these diaries dip delightfully into the mundane.
He was awaiting the result of a nuclear test on a new bomb, and said to the Queen: By this time tomorrow, we shall know if it is a pop or a plop.. Whether he yet has a say in the future of the country he served so long remains to be seen. Charlotte is daddy's double! Get the next 10 weeks from 10 plus a free commemorative coronation mug, Jacob Rees-Mogg, the former business secretary, has attacked the good people of South Cambridgeshire District Council for introducing a four day work week following a trial. Walking down a passage, the Queen's Private Secretary Tommy Lascelles and Philip Hay passed Anthony Blunt [Surveyor of the King's Pictures]. And when I returned to England, he sent for me and talked away as if nothing had happened. Thatcher then said she would like to say goodbye to the Queen, a request that was ignored. And at a time when nothing in British politics seems certain, they have taken on a new lease of life. Funeral services are 11:00 a.m., Wednesday, August 19th at New Boston United Methodist. January 11th, at 9 a.m. followed by a funeral mass celebrated in St. Thomas of Villanova Church, 126 . Both the Queen and Thatcher came to a gala at Covent Garden, but sat in different parts of the house. Veteran newspaper diarist Kenneth Rose kept many of his most sensational stories for his private journals now published following his death in 2014. Pictured: King Edward VIII exercising on a cruise in 1934. SEARCH. He was also spitting with rage about the fact that Edward VIII was not patriotic enough: He never cared about England or the English. Ferdinand Mount remembers Lascelles visiting his school, where Mount was startled by his explosion of venom against the Duke of Windsor He was memorably unpleasant.. He deplored flippancy and was shocked when he discovered that Roger Fulford, the historian, in Whos Who was one of those who. If this theory is true, it would certainly account for the fact that it was quite useless to expect him to appreciate any general rules of behaviour. Then, when Edward VIII abdicated in December 1936, Lascelles became assistant private secretary to George VI, some time after the new king's accession. Queen Elizabeth II: The man instrumental to the Queen's power - Express He inherited his father George Lascelles' title after his death in 2011. (In one of his more venomous moments, Lascelles wrote that the Kings subjects would not tolerate a shop-spoiled American, with two living husbands and a voice like a rusty saw.) SirEdward VIII and Wallis Simpson, the Duchess of Windsor, outside Government House in Nassau, the Bahamas in 1942. Royal news: Princess Margaret lashed out at Churchill - Express an attitude typical of boyhood. [5], Lascelles was knighted by George VI, while aboard a train, during the moderately successful 1939 royal tour of Canada and the United States, which he had helped to arrange and manage; the King made him a Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (KCVO)[6] which is an honour in the personal gift of the sovereign and does not require political approval. Although he was skittling around London dining with what Bertie Wooster would call some of the better elements, his diary never comes alive like it does when he shoots his first stag, or when hes riding a horse. June is an award winning reporter, producer and editor. If this is true, it marks an epoch in domestic economy. A few months later he is given one of the new Biro stylographic pens, reputed to write 30 miles without a re-fill; it is quite an agreeable instrument to handle and I hope to be saved much labour by it. But for the most part this book chronicles affairs of state. That is the romantic view which sentimental biographers will doubtless take in the future. . Caligula himself can never have done anything more wanton. I was having an argument with my Mama the other day. It's better to have a little sugar than any sweetener at all, says Gut Health Guru Dr Megan Rossi. The Queen is careful never to reveal what she thinks of each, although it is generally known that she and Margaret Thatcher had sharp disagreements on the importance of the Commonwealth. I refused; I pointed out that I should be in a queer position if the King were to die and the Prince of Wales to succeed. He tells me that he lives like a snake one large meal a day, if that. When Blunt was out of earshot, Tommy said to Philip: That man is a Soviet spy, you know. [Blunt knighted in 1956 wasnt unmasked as a spy by MI5 until 1963. She said you had once written a book called Tess Of The d'Urbervilles, and I said I was sure it was by somebody else. His whole existence had already been made to conform to what H.G. Lascelles then returned to Britain and was appointed Assistant Private Secretary to Edward, Prince of Wales, in 1920, serving in that role until resigning in 1929, citing differences with the prince. [6] He was sworn of the Privy Council, entitling him to the prefix "Right Honourable", in 1943. I hear an amusing story about Martin Charteris as Provost. There is no biography. She's appeared on outlets including BBC 5 Live, BBC Radio Ulster and BBC Local Radio and has also helped set up a commercial radio station. He had a very low opinion of the royal who gave up the British throne to marry an American divorcee and lived abroad for the rest of his life. I, of course, was not present; but, coming out of my office, I ran into him striding down the passage with a face blacker than any thunderstorm. He died forty years ago and yet, suddenly, he is at the heart of a new drama. Sir Alan Lascelles, usually called Tommy, had been the Kings Private Secretary for most of his reign. He was to deplore what he felt to be the premature disintegration of the empire, believing that most of our colonial dependencies would be palpably unfit to administer themselves for many generations yet. Arrangements by Rose Family Funeral Home. Please select what you would like included for printing: Copy the text below and then paste that into your favorite email application. In 1952 he became Private Secretary to Elizabeth II, a role he held until 1953. Looking back, I don't believe I could have done anything but what I did namely to wait upon events. Having been a courtier, on and off, from 1920-1953, he gives a fascinating insight into how to preserve a monarchy in a democracy. Dale Lee Lascelles, 82, of Ipava, IL, "went hunting" on Friday, December 2, 2022 at his home on the farm. But when his archives are eventually dusted off, I doubt we will find any dark secrets in there. I can say with honesty that I have set down nothing in malice; indeed, knowing all that I do, I am amazed at my own moderation. [7] He had been appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath in 1937, was promoted to Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in 1944 and to Knight Grand Cross on his retirement in 1953. Lascelless history with Edward VIII is essential to understanding later events. The Principles are the conditions in which a Monarch can refuse a request from the Prime Minister to dissolve Parliament. I speak to both the Queen and the Duke, who talk freely. The exiled Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark was 18 and serving in the British Royal Navy. After attending Marlborough College, followed by Trinity College, Oxford, Lascelles served in France with the Bedfordshire Yeomanry during the First World War, where he rose to the rank of captain and was awarded the Military Cross, after which he became aide-de-camp to his brother-in-law Lord Lloyd, the Governor of Bombay from 1919 to 1920. It would have been wrong for those young men to be punished while Coward was honoured. Instead, Wilson was merely asked whether he really wanted to recommend so many more names than his predecessors had done; and whether they were the names which on reflection he would still wish to put forward. A difficult year for Albert and Charlene finally winds to an end, The Duchess of Cambridge wows TV audiences with a musical piano performance on Christmas Eve, The princess whose royal wedding had to wait until the heir to the throne had married, The life, scandals and loves of Princess Margaret, Princess Margaret's fashion favourite: Christian Dior, How Princess Margaret made a poignant nod to her late father, King George VI, on her wedding day. He was visited only by his children and grandchildren and one or two very old friends, complained Tommy Lascelles a few years before he died; apart from that, I only see some of the young scribes, who, poor boys, think my opinion of their writing is worth getting, e.g. We seem to want the family to be middle class when it is above such things hierarchically. Thomas Lascelles (died 1697), English Member of Parliament. I am certain that she was, on the instructions of the Home Secretary, Henry Brooke. A pity we cannot have the rambunctious army princes alongside the more sober emperors. It was substantially increased by the considerable sums which his brother paid him for his life interest in the Sandringham and Balmoral estates, so that, by the time he married, having no encumbrances, no overhead charges and no taxes to pay, he was one of the richest men in Europe if not the richest. It was finally broken by his incredibly callous behaviour when we got the news of his father's grave illness. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google One of the last things he did was sit in the garden of Kensington Palace to watch the firework celebrations of Charles and Dianas wedding. I see the film The Queen, with Helen Mirren utterly brilliant in the title role. So it's possible it was the Queen Mother's idea. He says: Yes one of the bishops made an indecent suggestion to me.. Lunch at the Beefsteak [London men-only club]. He enjoyed spending time with his beloved family, off-roading . Thomas Lascelles. King's Counsellor Abdication and War: The Diaries of Sir Alan Lascelles I read a review by Raymond Carr [Warden of St Antonys College, Oxford] of a new biography of [historian] A.J.P. If he knows today about the publication of this admirably edited selection from his diaries he has probably had mixed reactions. Her latest book, A History of British Royal Jubilees, is out now. With the King, he attended Eisenhowers exposition of the plans for opening a Second Front; he knew and, perhaps imprudently, confided to his diary details of the deception operations designed to suggest that the invasion would come at a different place and at a different time. Elizabeth was 13-years-old and became smitten with the older Philip . Dine at Eton. ISBN978-0-297-85155-4. As April came to an end, he wrote to The Times under the pseudonym Senex, Latin for old man. By then, he was 63 years old and had been in royal service for the best part of three decades. How long must a private secretary remain private? He went straight to his room, and for a long time was glued to the telephone. It was an isolation of his own making. He worked as a desktop support/computer Tech. Lascelles was highly educated and sophisticated person, far more than any of the Kings or Queens he served. There is no consensus, then, on Lascelless true character. Pammy says that she sometimes writes to the Queen to tell her things of supposed interest. The MP for North East Somerset labelled the idea an idlers charter. Olivia Wilde suffers red carpet embarrassment after showing up to the Met Gala in the SAME 'If that happens I'm done, I'm stopping!' But the Queen said no. He was born on February 19, 1940 in Peoria, Illinois to Charles and Ruby (Schmidt). In the season's eighth episode, "Pride & Joy," Elizabeth . HenryEOliver August 3, 2021 Filed under: He stood for fair play and pragmatism. Lascelles - Wikipedia Denis describes an AGM of BP, where he was a Government director. For some years after I joined his staff in 1920, I had a great affection and admiration for the Prince of Wales. Lascelles was attracted to the job partly because St. Jamess Palace was half a mile from his house and a quarter of a mile from his club, but mostly because I have got a very deep admiration for the Prince, and I am convinced that the future of England is as much in his hands as in any individual. I hear that the Queen found she had an unexpectedly free evening recently and that Philip was away. , updated rom which they are viewed and the humour and intelligence of the observer which make these diaries both brilliantly entertaining and historically priceless. When Reg showed the Queen round a Bodleian exhibition in Univ., the quad was full of cheering undergraduates. One of the few exceptions came after Hugh Dalton briefed George VI on his forthcoming budget. He complained in his diaries about the Duke of Gloucesters strange and irritating whinny, found the Duke of Kent spoilt and unstable and condemned the ostrich techniques which the royal family so often adopted. The Queen evidently has much longer audiences with Blair than those in the Thatcher and Major years. Money, and the things that money buys, were the principal desiderata in Mrs Simpson's philosophy, if not in his, and, when they found that they had been left the Crown without the cash, I am convinced that they agreed, in that interminable telephone conversation, to renounce their plans for a joint existence as private individuals, and to see what they could make out of the Kingship, with the subsidiary prospect of the Queenship for her later on. That sort of thing is either preciousness or showing-off, but whichever it is, it is offensive. And Lascelles had only drifted into the role. Tommy Lascelles, as he was known, was christened Alan. His third son Sir Frank Lascelles, was British Ambassador to Russia and to Germany. Tommy Lascelles, right hand man to George VI, could yet decide who governs the country in the year that the Kings daughter marks a record breaking Jubilee. Lascelles knew that he wrote uncommonly well, with wit, elegance and economy, and he would be delighted that the world should appreciate his skills. The next day, he asked for news about the event every few minutes, anxious it should all be going well. [The Prince's ignorance of literature] is by no means irrelevant to any picture of him, for a good deal of his nervous restlessness and consequent lack of balance may have been due to his complete inability to find a safety valve in a book (even a shilling shocker), as ordinary men do when they are over-wrought or over-tired.