Clive, always an indifferent seer, assured me that I need have no anxiety on that score. 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. Lascelles gets caricatured as a stiff-arsed, hard-bristled, curmudgeonly enforcer of horrible rules in The Crown, forever thwarting true loves course. He tells me, to my surprise, what a failure he thinks his life has been ie not prime minister. The soulless Edward was king. Instead, despite a somewhat inactive war, he was awarded the Military Cross. She said: Of course, it was easier for me than it would be for anybody else. Here, in an extract from his newly republished private journals, he gives a brutally honest portrait of Edward VIII, whose staff Lascelles was on twice once when he was Prince of Wales, and again when he became King. Lascelles believed in the substance of royalty, not just the display. He was the father of 1) the first Baron of the 1790 creation, and 2) Daniel Lascelles, represented Northallerton in Parliament. The night the abdication was announced, Lascelles walked round and round St Jamess Park, thinking about James II. He stood for fair play and pragmatism. The comments below have not been moderated, By
He was born on February 19, 1940 in Peoria, Illinois to Charles and Ruby (Schmidt). Forty years ago, on 10 August, a tall and wiry old man died at Kensington Palace, aged 94. From the time when, in 1918, he fell in love with Mrs Dudley Ward (fell, God knows, as deeply as any poor lovesick young man can fall), he was never out of the thrall of one female after another. 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. It is moonshine. He read Shakespeare on the Tube as he travelled to meetings at the bank, and wrote amateur poetry. Tommy Lascelles' never-before-published diaries paint a vivid picture of the pastfrom Edward VIII's abdication to George VI's death and his daughter Elizabeth's Coronation. 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.. Long talk with Edward Ford [Extra Equerry to the Queen, and her former assistant private secretary] at dinner. All rights reserved. Lascelles wrote to his wife Joan saying he was going to take the job: It is no use going about the world singing God Save the King if one isnt prepared to assist the Deity when called upon.. On Saturday we told how he witnessed Diana Spencers troubled relationship with Prince Charles. His work can be found atThe Common Reader. Without the war, he would have been edging towards becoming a drifter. Caligula himself can never have done anything more wanton. 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. His personality emerges vividly from these pages. For some years after I joined his staff in 1920, I had a great affection and admiration for the Prince of Wales. She expresses strong admiration for Mrs Thatchers determination to concede no sovereignty to the EEC. Clive Wigram, George Vs Private Secretary who was hiring Lascelles to be his assistant told him not to worry. Well it's obvious, I think, from the RF perspective that the Queen picked the wrong scandalous relationship to say yes too. We are no longer accepting comments on this article. He is now best known for the construction of Mount Grace Manor House, one of the few extant examples of architecture from the 1649 to 1660 Commonwealth or Protectorate. Visitation is Tuesday, August 18th from 5:00 - 7:00 p.m. at New Boston United Methodist Church. Edward, he said, was habitually ready to sacrifice truth to his personal likes or dislikes; Edwards celebrity wasnt enough to maintain the monarchy. 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. His only yardstick in measuring the advisability or non-advisability of any particular action was 'Can I get away with it?' Robert "Bobby" Lindley, 70, son, brother, father and friend passed away September 4, 2022, at his home in Lubbock, Texas. 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. He replied: Well, it will be cheaper than another Papal election., [Former ambassador to France] Edward Tomkins tells me that an English nanny said to one of the Rothschilds: Drink up your Lafite or you will have no water., The art critic Brian Sewell gave a talk at St Pauls School. Then, when Edward VIII abdicated in December 1936, Lascelles became assistant private secretary to George VI, some time after the new king's accession. I asked about a dozen people at 24 hours notice, and by great good fortune they were all free to come!, [Historian] Steven Runciman tells me that when it was decided that Prince Charles should go to Gordonstoun, Princess Marina (later the Duchess of Kent) said to Prince Philip: How like you to send him to the only German school in Britain., The Queen Mother, overhearing this, said to Princess Marina: I have always wanted to say that, but didnt dare.. I am so used to talking to strangers., Princess Margaret tells me her maid is the one who found a man in the Queens bedroom and exclaimed: Bloody ell, whats going on ere?. Memorably unpleasant Tommy Lascelles (Pip Torrens) in The Crown. Former Prime Ministers and their spouses give a dinner for the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh at Spencer House.
Brian replied: They make pederasty an incomprehensible vice.. His whole existence had already been made to conform to what H.G. Lydia is also a pen name of June Woolerton, a journalist and writer with over twenty years experience in TV, radio, print and online. Lascelles gave a forthright reply: I told him I would as soon walk stark naked down Piccadilly. We might find it easy to dismiss him as an old fogey. That is why, after the abdication, Lascelles went to some lengths to keep Edward out of the country, to try and eradicate the whole affair from the public mind. AJPT interrupted angrily, our greatest historian and never spoke to Raymond again. The following morning he sent [his assistant comptroller] Gerald Trotter to argue with me, but I refused to discuss it. Martin Charteris [the Queens private secretary, later Provost of Eton] to lunch at Claridges. Kind of - lascelles was a courtier back to the days of george v, and is kind of an avatar in the show of the old guard that called the shots along with the church & downing street to keep conservative sensibilities, diminishment of royal power, & most importantly to them the repression of individualism all in line. He had, in my opinion and in my experience, no comprehension of the ordinary axioms of rational or ethical behaviour. I am pro Monarchy, especially the enlightened sort. Lascelles (pronounced Lassels or 'La-sells') is an English surname of Norman-French origin whose translation means the saddle. II 1979-2014, edited by D.R. At such a time, junior members of the Household cannot walk out on a new King because they happen to have disapproved of the Prince of Wales. Lunch with Edward Ford. That is the romantic view which sentimental biographers will doubtless take in the future. We talk of relations between the Queen and her Prime Ministers. 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If I am in any way inclined to judge him harshly, it is solely because he did great wrong to England, and to himself. When Harold Nicolson had lunch with Lascelles three days after the Abdication, the courtier said the former King was like a child in the fairy stories who had been given every gift except a soul. Thomas Lascelles passed away on August 15, 2015 at the age of 75 in Viola, Illinois. Apparently he is a compulsive gambler, who loses literally tens of thousands of pounds a year. Sir Alan Frederick "Tommy" Lascelles, GCB, GCVO, CMG, MC (/lsls/ LASS-lss; 11 April 1887 10 August 1981) was a British courtier and civil servant who held several positions in the first half of the twentieth century, culminating in his position as Private Secretary to both King George VI and Queen Elizabeth II. As he wrote: I think I can fairly claim to be the first man to be dubbed in a train, and also the first Englishman to be so treated by his Sovereign on American soil., That the Lascelles Principles were mentioned alongside spotted dick might well have gratified Lascelles immensely. In general he was severe, even puritanical in his judgments. ', Thomas Hardy, like the perfect gentleman he was, replied without batting an eyelid: 'Yes, Sir, that was the name of one of my earlier novels.'. There was always a grande affaire and, coincidentally, as I know to my cost, an unbroken series of petites affaires, contracted and consummated in whatever highways and byways of the Empire he was traversing at the moment; for example, the above-mentioned Mrs Barnes of Tanganyika. 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. 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!' It is also why, irrespective of the way it happened, Lascelles came to believe the abdication was inevitable. Prince Eddie, [the Duke of Kent] describes how the Queen plans the annual family Christmas lunch down to the last detail. He was a Veteran and served in the Navy for 5 years. SirEdward VIII and Wallis Simpson, the Duchess of Windsor, outside Government House in Nassau, the Bahamas in 1942. Three Iconic Outfits from The Queens Jubilees, Princess Anne undertakes one-day visit to Northern Ireland. Henry Oliveris a writer. There was one curious outward symptom of this. The last thing Lascelles could be described as was a dude. At first, he refused. [He says] the Queen felt strongly about [former Labour Prime Minister] Harold Wilsons resignation Honours List, but felt she could not remonstrate with him, much less turn it down. But Lascelles wasnt just a stickler for arcane and snobbish standards, nor did he take a cruel pleasure in enforcing them. This isnt just bluster. Have you ever heard of it?'. Gentlemen do not just drop out of Royal service because they dislike the new King. The Principles are the conditions in which a Monarch can refuse a request from the Prime Minister to dissolve Parliament. He asked Monty where he should send them. Isaiah now has an important piece of evidence. 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. 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. Consequently, when he came to the parting of the ways, he stood there tragically and pitifully alone. , updated It was mentioned that the Queen Mother, who colluded with Tommy over the affair, figured that after a couple years the princess would grow disinterested. It's better to have a little sugar than any sweetener at all, says Gut Health Guru Dr Megan Rossi. It is perhaps surprising that Edward kept Lascelles on. 08:10 BST 04 Nov 2019. But, by 1927, my idol had feet and more than feet of clay. I speak to both the Queen and the Duke, who talk freely. SEND FLOWERS. Mr. Francis L. Lascelles Jr., age 95, of Exeter, NH formerly of Tewksbury, Woburn, Wilmington and Charlestown, passed away peacefully on January 6th, at the Genesis Health Care Center in New Hampshire following a period of declining health. So it's possible it was the Queen Mother's idea. The Queen's first cousin, Lord Harewood, has died aged 88 at the family home Harewood House near Leeds. At a wedding, when asked if he was bride or bridegroom, he replied: I dont know. Moment commuter blasts eco-zealots, Student kicked out of school for 'there are only two genders' t-shirt, Russian freight train derails and bursts into flames after explosion, Royal superfans camping on The Mall ahead of King's Coronation, Women's rights activists and pro-trans campaigners separated, Cambridge students party in the park during annual celebrations, Saboteurs wreck Russian train cut power cables 37mi from Ukraine, Hundreds of Household Division members rehearse for coronation, Moment large saltwater crocodile snatches pet dog off beach in QLD, Devastating tornado picks up car and hurls it through air in Florida, Unseen footage of Meghan Markle during her teenage years, Historic chairs to be reused by the King for the coronation service. Because Resting Bitch Face has been a thorn in the side of powerful women for a very, very long time. indulge in facetious entries under the heading Recreations. To the extent that he was a propagandist, an enemy of Edward VIII, a reactionary, and everything else he is claimed to be, it was because he realised the royal family had very little choice.
Both judgments were extravagant and the second particularly unfortunate for the Duke. Duncan Davidson [founder of housebuilders Persimmon] tells me that he is still sometimes teased for having been a page at the Coronation in 1953. When Blunt was out of earshot, Tommy said to Philip . Lascelles, Rt. 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). Lavinia Hankinson, who has died aged 97, was the elder daughter of Sir Alan ("Tommy") Lascelles, who served as Private Secretary to both King George VI and Queen Elizabeth II, and his wife . [Former Conservative Prime Minister] Ted Heath tells me of one of his visits to Windsor just after [businessman] Arnold Weinstock had won the 200th running of the Derby, so beating the Queens horse. The tennis legend debuts her new baby bump as she and husband Alexis Met Gala 2023 live: Rihanna finally arrives! (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.) I have recently finished listening to the audio version of Kings Counsellor which as a nice touch is narrated by Pip Torrens. Extracted from King's Counsellor: Abdication And War, The Diaries Of Sir Alan Lascelles, to be published by Weidenfeld & Nicholson on August 6 at 13.99. Racehorses, or cart-horses: any sort of horses.) He was good at it, though. Prince Charles tells me that the head of Wimbledon asked whether he thought the Queen would come to open a new court. Lascelles was highly educated and sophisticated person, far more than any of the Kings or Queens he served. Dine at Eton. You see, they have so much to learn from us., Lunch with [former PM] Harold Macmillan. Alan "Tommy" Lascelles, his assistant private secretary, . One of the right kind of British or English! To Headington for tea with [philosopher] Isaiah Berlin. Ed Sheeran tells NYC court he'll QUIT music if he's found guilty Could a hormone spray reignite your love life? Looking back, I don't believe I could have done anything but what I did namely to wait upon events. Lascelless history with Edward VIII is essential to understanding later events. Why not a picture of the man rather than an actor. And at a time when nothing in British politics seems certain, they have taken on a new lease of life. Lavinia Joan Lascelles, born 27 June 1923, died 3 November 2020; married to Major Edward Westland Renton, divorced 1960, then 196264 to the writer, Caroline Mary Lascelles, born 15 February 1927; married 1949 to, This page was last edited on 2 May 2023, at 00:36. 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. In the fevered 24 hours that have seen the UK Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, rocked by a series of resignations in his Cabinet and constant calls from members of his own party for him to quit, the Lascelles Principles which he set out before The Queens record breaking reign began have suddenly become the subject of huge interest. Deaths announced of Alec Guinness and Robin Day. 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. But how confidently can we say that we are beyond his concerns about private probity? We welcome applications to contribute to UnHerd please fill out the form below including examples of your previously published work. [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. 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. FUNERAL HOMES. The Queen was informed the following year. That wont be seen by anyone for 50 years, he would pronounce with some relish. It is the duty of the private secretary to be private.. I'm fashionably late, baby! But it was precisely this slightly detached view that made him such a good courtier. Dennison Funeral Home, Aledo is assisting the family. Who Where Receive obituaries John Warner April 16, 2023 (66 years old) View obituary Evette Marie Rufus April 10, 2023 (58 years old) View obituary He was born September 19, 1951. Thomas Lascelles, 75, formerly of New Boston, Illinois died Saturday, August 15, 2015 at his home in Muscatine, Iowa. Interesting article. When Mrs Thatcher exposed his treachery six years later to the House of Commons, he was stripped of his knighthood.]. 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. He's good for another seven years at least.'. From time to time these diaries dip delightfully into the mundane. Lunch at the Beefsteak [London men-only club]. Extracted from Who Loses, Who Wins: The Journals Of Kenneth Rose, Vol. Both the Queen and Thatcher came to a gala at Covent Garden, but sat in different parts of the house. Visitation is Tuesday, August 18th from 5:00 - 7:00 p.m. at New Boston United Methodist Church. King Lear and quoted with some amusement George VIs complaints about governmental interference. This mention of the Lascelles Principles might well have amused their author, Sir Alan Tommy Lascelles, who was my grandfather. Quitting it, he called himself an inverted Falstaff (because he was thin, just as thin in middle age as when he was young), leaving Prince Hal to work out his own damnation. 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. Subscribe to leave a comment. 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. There was a roar of applause. He says: Yes one of the bishops made an indecent suggestion to me.. Taylor. Tommy Lascelles was the reluctant courtier who made sure the Royal Family never changed BY Henry Oliver . ', Then, for the first and only time in our association, I lost my temper with him. 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 . 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. [Former Labour Prime Minister] Jim Callaghan says: I must confess I should have done the same., I ask the Queen whether she still has to approve the names of all the new warships. OBITUARIES. ISBN978-0-297-85155-4. Richard Shaw [who had written an obituary of Edward for future use, which he'd asked Tommy to comment on] tactfully introduces Mrs Simpson by saying: 'He fell deeply in love with a woman who had had two husbands.'. [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. Thomas Lascelles, 75, formerly of New Boston, Illinois died Saturday, August 15, 2015 at his home in Muscatine, Iowa. Its a great piece of history. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. 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. 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. He worked as a desktop support/computer Tech. He enjoyed spending time with his beloved family, off-roading . Jeffery Allen Lascelles November 21, 1956-March 30, 2021 MUSCATINE-Jeffery Allen Lascelles was born in Muscatine, IA to Thomas and Virginia Lascelles on November 21, 1956. He was knighted in June 1939 by George VI (giggling in a most disarming fashion) in an impromptu ceremony conducted on a train approaching the city of Buffalo, in New York state. We are no longer accepting comments on this article. 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. Dale was a 1958 graduate of Easton High School. 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She is the author of two novels, published as e-books. This is, after all, Alan Lascelles: reactionary, establishment stalwart, slayer of marriages, arch defender of the old order. [8] He did, however, accept appointment as a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath which, he said, "rated much higher than a peerage". Not sure about Margarets marriage. Join the conversation with other Spectator readers. 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. Lily James steals the spotlight in a dramatic leather gown as she flies Met Gala 2023: Kate Moss, 49, slips into a pink lingerie inspired gown as she coordinates with lookalike Met Gala 2023: Brooklyn Beckham looks lovingly at wife Nicola Peltz as she wears a flowing white gown with Bill's in Vogue! At least it pleased the Australians. How long must a private secretary remain private? He worked as a desktop support/computer Tech. 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.