Consequently, when he came to the parting of the ways, he stood there tragically and pitifully alone. The following morning he sent [his assistant comptroller] Gerald Trotter to argue with me, but I refused to discuss it. There is no consensus, then, on Lascelless true character. (Tommy Lascelles died on August 10, 1981, aged 94.) Part of the Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday & Metro Media Group. He tells me that he lives like a snake one large meal a day, if that. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. When Cripps took off his shoes before entering the house in which Gandhi was staying Lascelles commented crossly that it was a foolish and unnecessary gesture, either insincere or undignified. He died two weeks later. When he went to open his fourth, at Lloyds, the manager patronisingly asked him why he had chosen that particular bank. In the 1920s served as asst private secretary to Edward, Prince of Wales, when he . Lascelles wrote that deciding whether to grant a request to dissolve parliament is entirely personal to the Sovereign, though he is, of course, free to seek informal advice from anybody whom he thinks fit to consult.. In between lies an enormous range of events, including World War II as seen from Lascelles' point of view as private secretary to the Royal Family, the Princess Margaret . Granted immunity in return for a full confession, he continued as Surveyor of the Queens Pictures until 1973. The royal family is meant to bring spectacle to our lives by displaying theirs: a glittering pageant of Births, Deaths, and Marriages. So the Queen appointed the obviously inferior [Australian composer] Malcolm Williamson. Cancelled? He was burying the head of his tribe. Tommy Lascelles words now echo to us through history. Though I wasted the best years of my life in the service of the Prince of Wales, towards him personally I feel no bitterness, for, in all the time of our association, he never said an unkind word to me. I expected to get my head bitten off but Baldwin heard me to the end, and after a pause, said he agreed with every word I had said. That is why the knighthood had to be refused, and why Wallis Simpson couldnt be Queen. Thorpe 2019. As the monarchy lost power through the nineteenth century, they replaced it with performance. We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. He heard me with scarcely an interruption, and when we parted, said: 'Well, goodnight, Tommy, and thank you for the talk. Sir Alan Lascelles, usually called Tommy, had been the Kings Private Secretary for most of his reign. Clive, always an indifferent seer, assured me that I need have no anxiety on that score. I speak to both the Queen and the Duke, who talk freely. [4], When the Prince of Wales ascended the throne as Edward VIII on the death of George V in January 1936, Lascelles served briefly as the new King's assistant private secretary. I had been out of England for five years, and during that time had heard little of the Prince of Wales, and less of Mrs [Wallis] Simpson and her immediate predecessors. We talk of relations between the Queen and her Prime Ministers. Emma Brockes refers to Britain and its words and traditions the 1922 Committee, the Lascelles Principles, turnips, spotted dick that from a branding perspective, you couldnt get away with in the US (Digested week: while Americans lead in everything else, no one can match Britain for farce, 8 July 2022). I tried to interest her in politics, but she is only interested in the personalities of politics. Instead, despite a somewhat inactive war, he was awarded the Military Cross. He was a Veteran and served in the Navy for 5 years. From Rock Island IL, graduated from Rock Island High School. He tells me, to my surprise, what a failure he thinks his life has been ie not prime minister. He looked at me, went out without a word, and spent the remainder of the evening in the successful seduction of a Mrs Barnes, wife of the local commissioner. There was one curious outward symptom of this. (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.) So it's possible it was the Queen Mother's idea. His work can be found at The Common Reader. Lascelles gets caricatured as a stiff-arsed, hard-bristled, curmudgeonly enforcer of horrible rules in The Crown, forever thwarting true loves course. Tommy Lascelles turning over in his grave. into ready money. You see, they have so much to learn from us., Lunch with [former PM] Harold Macmillan. Alan "Tommy" Lascelles, his assistant private secretary, . Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. He told us that when he received the insignia of the CH [Companion of Honour] from the Queen, he felt some resentment against the courtiers, who managed to be both patronising and irritating. Get the next 10 weeks from 10 plus a free commemorative coronation mug. Fashion disaster! Then, when Edward VIII abdicated in December 1936, Lascelles became assistant private secretary to George VI, some time after the new king's accession. [Times editor] William Rees-Mogg tells me that his boy Jakie [Jacob Rees-Mogg, who went on to become a multi-millionaire hedge-fund owner, Conservative MP and now Leader of the House of Commons], aged 11, plays the stock market and is a very real holder of shares in GEC. [citation needed], Lascelles was also Keeper of the Royal Archives from 1943 to 1953. Long talk with Edward Ford [Extra Equerry to the Queen, and her former assistant private secretary] at dinner. The 70-year-old is 63rd in line to the British throne. The Lascelles Principles were set out in 1950 when debate began around the role of King George VI in a political maelstrom which followed a general election which had seen Labour retain power but with a wafer thin majority. 'He's been dead for 130 years and can still satisfy the ladies': Social media goes wild over mystery woman Scientists discover what happens seconds before you die - activity in the brain and heart RAMPS UP, Trendy hard floors could be to blame for your foot pain (and there is a simple way to stop it). Thomas Lascelles passed away on August 15, 2015 at the age of 75 in Viola, Illinois. 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. The heart of this book is the diary Lascelles kept from June 1942 to April 1946. [He also had an] astounding ignorance of English literature. 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. With kind, caring and capable staff, we take pride in the way weinteract with our families and their loved ones. I can just hear the Queen Mother and Tommy persuading Elizabeth to say no to Group Captain Townsend (and Camilla later on) because the Crown is fragile enough as it is and one . Looking back, I don't believe I could have done anything but what I did namely to wait upon events. Wells calls 'the urgency of sex', and Mrs Simpson was no isolated phenomenon, but merely the current figure in an arithmetical progression that had been robustly maintained for nearly 20 years. Then he undertook to talk straightly to the Prince at an early opportunity; but he never did, until October 1936 too late, too late. The only time she has ever replied was when I sent my sympathy after one of her dogs had been killed by a Clarence House corgi. King Lear and quoted with some amusement George VIs complaints about governmental interference. Ulick Alexander [keeper of the privy purse 193652] has told me that, in May of that year, he at last induced Edward VIII to go round his immense kitchen garden and glasshouses at Windsor. Eventually, of course, by a strange turn of the wheel, I did find myself in his service once more. And when I returned to England, he sent for me and talked away as if nothing had happened. But I believe that even then, he would have clung to them (he always hated changing any scheme he had evolved himself) but for the provisions of his father's will. Once the journey was underway, a young man appeared in the doorway of my carriage. Ted said to the Queen and Prince Philip: Of course, if it had been a sailing race, we should all have hung back so that the Queen could have won it., Prince Philip retorted: Like hell you would!, [Former Labour PM] Jim Callaghan shares my delight in the personality of the Queen Mother. And Lascelles had only drifted into the role. She survives. In body, he might have been a sculptor's model; but his mental, moral and aesthetic development, broadly-speaking, remained that of a boy of 17. Lascelles had good reason to criticise his masters conduct, but he cannot really have believed that, in 1937, he was one of the richest men in Europe if not the richest. Robert W. Lindley. We seem to want the family to be middle class when it is above such things hierarchically. Now! Brigadier Geoffrey Hardy-Roberts, Master of the Royal Household from 1967 to 1973, used to worry at the difficulty of keeping food hot when served on gold plate. The particular pride of the old Scottish gardener was the peach house, at that time a mass of blossom, promising a record crop. The King looked out of the window for a space, then said, The Chancellor of the Exchequer stinks like the main drain. And that was the only secret of the Budget revealed to me. Moreover, the implication is that he, a lonely bachelor, 'fell deeply in love' for the first time in his life with the soulmate for whom he had long been waiting. All rights reserved. An extraordinary episode of a man [Michael Fagan] who a few days ago penetrated all the security arrangements at Buckingham Palace and sat on the Queens bed for ten minutes, with a bleeding hand and clutching a broken glass ashtray. Then came the 1928 trip to Kenya and Uganda, which was the last straw on my camel's back. Thomas Lascelles (1624 to 1697), also spelt Lassells, was an English radical politician and businessman of the second half of the 17th century. Terms of Service apply. My address? Prince Eddie, [the Duke of Kent] describes how the Queen plans the annual family Christmas lunch down to the last detail. Philip Ziegler and C. Douglas-Home. Lascelles delighted in tantalising this now elderly scribe by extracting from a locked chest a volume of his diaries, reading a few sentences aloud, and then returning it to its repository. The Prince came in, and I read it to him. SEARCH. Dale Lee Lascelles, 82, of Ipava, IL, "went hunting" on Friday, December 2, 2022 at his home on the farm. When Reg showed the Queen round a Bodleian exhibition in Univ., the quad was full of cheering undergraduates. Thatcher then said she would like to say goodbye to the Queen, a request that was ignored. [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. His only answer, I have been told on the best authority, was: 'Can't you understand that nothing matters nothing except her happiness and mine?'. 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. I ask Oliver Millar [Surveyor of the Queens Pictures 197288] whether he has ever heard the story about Tommy Lascelles catching sight of Anthony Blunt in the passage at Buckingham Palace and saying to Philip Hay: Thats our Russian spy.. We discuss whether the Queen was informed of Anthony Blunts treason when he confessed to MI5 in 1964 (though it was not made public till 1979). Great article. (Tommy Lascelles died on August 10, 1981, aged 94.). The day after George V died, nearly 20 years after that complaint about imperial flummery, the Kings body was taken to a little church at the end of the garden at Sandringham for a small private ceremony ahead of the large, public spectacle: The guardsmen, with scarcely a sound, slung the coffin on their shoulders and laid it before the altar; and there, after a very brief service, we left it, to be watched for thirty-six hours by the men of the Sandringham Estate. ', Then, for the first and only time in our association, I lost my temper with him. Janelle Mone leads the worst-dressed list at the 2023 Met Gala in BIZARRE nearly-naked frock Boots and booty! FUNERAL HOMES. He asked Monty where he should send them. SirEdward VIII and Wallis Simpson, the Duchess of Windsor, outside Government House in Nassau, the Bahamas in 1942. On Saturday we told how he witnessed Diana Spencers troubled relationship with Prince Charles. One niggle: the author writes, He could talk of the King as a Deity with little exaggeration, but in the subsequent quotation which is presumably the basis for this, Lascelles is clearly referring to God and not to the King. I think the states monarch is the exemplar for the personal or individual. She is lonely and apprehensive about the future., Jean Trumpington to dine. Click here to subscribe to the Royal Central newsletter,
I read a review by Raymond Carr [Warden of St Antonys College, Oxford] of a new biography of [historian] A.J.P. 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. EXCLUSIVE: High-ranking Met Police officer on 100,000-a-year who was found to be a regular user of Pictured: British grandfather and 'friend to everybody' who died while snorkelling during dream cruise Conservatives could suffer bigger losses at this week's local elections because up to two million voters do THIRD foreign rapist remains in Britain despite orders for him to be sent back to Jamaica in 2020 - after SNP MP considers legal action against Edinburgh Fringe comedy club after being 'no-platformed' over her Do not sell or share my personal information. Nor is there any reason why anything I write of him should be malicious. SUPPORT OUR JOURNALISM: Please consider donating to keep our website running and free for all - thank you! [Lawyer] Arnold Goodman tells me that when he was one of Laurence Oliviers sponsors at his introduction into the House of Lords, the actor insisted on no fewer than three dress rehearsals! 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 went on: 'You know, sometimes when I sit in York House waiting to get the result of some point-to-point in which he is riding, I can't help thinking that the best thing that could happen to him, and to the country, would be for him to break his neck. Most of us, after such an exit, would never go back. OBITUARIES. Lord Harewood had served as the chairman of the board of the . Lascelles died on 10 August 1981 at Kensington Palace at the age of 94. Lascelles (pronounced Lassels or 'La-sells') is an English surname of Norman-French origin whose translation means the saddle. 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. Kenneth Rose For The Daily Mail
It is the duty of the private secretary to be private.. Edward VIII wanted to run a very different sort of tribe. indulge in facetious entries under the heading Recreations. Bevis Hillier [art historian and author], who is writing [former poet laureate] John Betjemans life, tells me that not even in his cups will John Sparrow [Warden of All Souls, Oxford] part with his letters from Betjeman; probably because they shared a salacious interest in little boys muddy football shorts. His mother was the daughter of Sir Adolphus Liddell, son of Thomas Liddell, 1st Baron Ravensworth.[3]. It remains to be seen whether he will eventually be remembered as the last of the old school who helped the monarchy transition to its modern function or as a crusty old reactionary who needlessly destroyed a clutch of happy lives. The grown-ups are in one big room, the children in another. The Estate of Kenneth Rose and D.R. He went straight to his room, and for a long time was glued to the telephone. Arnold pleads with him: I wish that whenever you sell a picture, you would send me half to put away for you. But Freud does not want any money in the bank. It is moonshine. He worked as a desktop support/computer Tech. Burial will be in New Boston Cemetery. SEND FLOWERS. That the Lascelles Principles were mentioned alongside spotted dick might well have gratified their author immensely, says his grandson Simon Renton. He is a hereditary peer and has worked as a film and TV producer. Before the end of our Canadian trip that year, I felt in such despair about him that I sought a secret colloquy with Stanley Baldwin (then Prime Minister, and one of our party) one evening at Government House, Ottawa. [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. Londonderry: I am saving her for the Chief Rabbi., Ralph Carr-Ellison [Lord Lieutenant of Tyne and Wear] tells me that when Monty [Field Marshal Montgomery] visited St Aubyns prep school some years ago, one of the boys took photographs of him. Much of what Lascelles is said to have brought about may well have been inevitable as monarchy adjusted to democracy. THOMAS LASCELLES Thomas Lascelles, 75, formerly of New Boston, Illinois died Saturday, August 15, 2015 at his home in Muscatine, Iowa. Simpson, who was nothing worse than a nincompoop, I believe, was aware of this plot, and for some reason best known to himself had thought fit to communicate the details of it privily to [a fellow Freemason] the Lord Mayor of London, of all people an uneasy secret which the good man was naturally unable to keep to himself. Afterwards the High Master asked him what he thought of the boys. He read Shakespeare on the Tube as he travelled to meetings at the bank, and wrote amateur poetry. But Tommy didnt speculate. They were if parliament was still vital, viable and capable of doing its job, if a General Election would be damaging to the national economy and, lastly, if the Monarch was able to find another Prime Minister who could continue in Government for a reasonable period with a working majority in the House of Commons., The letter is also interesting for its spotlight on the role of the Monarch within the constitutional process. I dont care if the next generation does have two heads. Denis expected the man to be shouted down. The stability of the monarchy mattered to him. For Lascelles, as for the public at that time, those principles were about marriage. And this new mode of royal existence is part of what made Edward VIII such a star as Prince of Wales: his tours of America, Canada, and South Africa were massive successes. Within six weeks of my taking up the appointment, George V was dead and Edward VIII was King. In 1950, he wrote the Lascelles Principles in a letter to the editor of The Times, using the pen-name "Senex". And so, from a combination of lassitude, duty, and blue-blooded patriotism, Lascelles ended up as Assistant Private Secretary to a man he was morally repulsed by. To Rhodes House in Oxford for the Vice-Chancellors lunch. [Former Conservative Prime Minister] Ted Heath tells me that when [composer] William Waltons arrangement of the National Anthem was played before the first production of Brittens Gloriana at Covent Garden in 1953, the Queen turned to Prince Philip in the Royal Box and said: Are they allowed to do this to it? Princess Margaret passed this on to Walton, who was dejected.
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