ROYAL TRAGEDY
Heartbreak for Harry and William. With heavy hearts, we announce the passing of a family member
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Lord Robert Fellowes, who held the position of the private secretary to Queen Elizabeth II, passed away at the age of 82. He was not only the uncle of Princes William and Harry but also the brother-in-law of Princess Diana. During the tumultuous period from 1990 to 1999, when three of the late monarch’s children were going through divorces and Diana met her tragic end, he served as the queen’s chief advisor. He was by the Queen’s side during her so-called “Annus Horribilis” in 1992, a year marred by the breakdown of Charles and Diana’s marriage, Andrew’s divorce from Sarah, Anne’s divorce, the fire at Windsor Castle, and a shift in public sentiment against the royal family. Mohamed Al Fayed, the owner of Harrods, even demanded that Lord Fellowes refute the baseless accusations that he was involved in a plot to kill his son Dodi and Diana.
In 1978, he wed Lady Jane Spencer, Diana’s elder sister, and they had three children: Alexander, Eleanor, and Laura, with Laura being Princess Charlotte’s godmother. Actor Andrew Havill depicted him in the Netflix series The Crown. In his later years, he served as Elizabeth II’s supplementary equerry until her passing in September 2022. The funeral arrangements have not been made public, and the cause of his death was not disclosed on Monday. Reacting to his death, Diana’s younger brother Earl Spencer tweeted this morning, “My truly remarkable brother-in-law, Robert, has left us. A complete gentleman in every positive sense of the word, he was a man of humor, wisdom, and absolute integrity. I am deeply honored to have been his brother-in-law.”
Lord Fellowes was born at Sandringham in 1941. His father, Sir William “Billy” Fellowes, who was the estate manager from 1936 until 1964 and went shooting with King George VI. His mother, Jane Fellowes, was the granddaughter of Brigadier General Algernon Ferguson, the high sheriff of Northamptonshire and an ancestor of Sarah, the Duchess of York. According to an obituary in The Times today, the then-Princess Elizabeth was among the first to welcome him at his birth and later remarked, “Robert is the only one of my private secretaries I have held in my arms.”
He didn’t attend university but was known as the “Walking Wisden” at Eton College for his extensive cricket knowledge. Instead, he received a commission in the Scots Guards and served in the Army from 1960 to 1963 before moving to the City to work for Allen, Harvey, and Ross, discount brokers. In 1977, he was appointed as the Queen’s assistant private secretary, and a year later, he married Lady Jane Spencer, with Diana as a bridesmaid. After advancing in his career at Buckingham Palace, he took over from Sir William Heseltine as deputy private secretary in 1986 and became private secretary in 1990.
Shortly after assuming the position, he helped the Queen navigate through the difficult “annus horribilis” of 1992, which was filled with various family scandals involving the marriages of Charles, Anne, and Andrew. That year, on November 20, Windsor Castle was severely damaged by a fire that destroyed 115 rooms, including nine state rooms. In a speech to over 500 VIP guests at a Corporation of London Guildhall luncheon on November 24, 1992, to mark her 40th year on the throne, Elizabeth II said, “1992 is not a year on which I shall look back with unalloyed pleasure.” She described it as an “Annus Horribilis,” a play on the more commonly used “annus mirabilis” which means “year of wonders.”
When Diana passed away in 1997 while the Queen was at Balmoral, she was criticized for not returning to London sooner. Although Lord Fellowes believed the criticism was unfair, he ultimately decided that a change was needed and expedited her return. He also drafted the first version of her speech to the nation, which was widely lauded when she referred to herself as “your queen and as a grandmother.”
In 1999, he left the royal service and took up the position of chairman at Barclays Private Bank, handing over the reins to his deputy, Sir Robin Janvrin. After leaving the Royal Family, Lord Fellowes became a life peer and served as the chairman of the Prison Reform Trust and as a privy counsellor. In 2008, he told the Daily Telegraph in an interview, “My life has been spent in quite a gilded cage. Eton, the royal family, the Guards, and then Barclays. To be introduced to a prison was a culture shock and very instructive.” He also spoke highly of his sister-in-law’s career, saying, “She was very good at it—an extraordinary communicator with a great sense of compassion for the underprivileged. It never came across as patronizing. She focused on the areas where she thought she could make a difference, and generally, she succeeded.”
In a 2003 interview with The Times, he explained his choice to sit on the crossbenches in the Lords, saying, “In my previous life, I had to be apolitical, and it became a habit. It’s challenging for anyone who has worked in the private office of the sovereign to take a party whip. And being a crossbencher suits my temperament, even though my friends think I’m a radical.”
Lord Robert Fellowes was born on December 11, 1941, and passed away on July 29, 2024. Please share this story with your family and friends and share your thoughts in the comments!