Alan Lascelles

Sir Alan Frederick "Tommy" Lascelles, GCB, GCVO, CMG, MC (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 to Queen Elizabeth II. He wrote the Lascelles Principles in a 1950 letter to the editor of The Times, using the pen-name "Senex".

Life

Lascelles (usually pronounced to rhyme with "tassels") was known to his intimates as "Tommy." He was born the son of Commander The Hon. Frederick Canning Lascelles and Frederica Maria Liddell, and the grandson of Henry Lascelles, 4th Earl of Harewood. He was thus a cousin of Henry Lascelles, 6th Earl of Harewood, who married Mary, the Princess Royal, sister of Alan's employers Edward VIII and George VI.

After schooling at Marlborough College and Trinity College, Oxford, Lascelles served in France with the Bedfordshire Yeomanry during the First World War, after which he became the Aide-de-Camp to Lord Lloyd, the Governor of Bombay from 1919 to 1920.

He then returned to England and was appointed Assistant Private Secretary to the Prince of Wales. From 1931 to 1935 he was Secretary to the Governor General of Canada. He became the Assistant Private Secretary to King George V and later King George VI in 1936, and in 1942 rose to Private Secretary to King George VI. In 1952 he became Private Secretary to Queen Elizabeth II, a role he held until 1953.

He was also Keeper of the Royal Archives from 1943 to 1953.

His papers are now held in the Churchill Archives Centre, in Great Britain.

He died at the age of 94.

Family

On 16 March 1920 he married Joan Frances Vere Thesiger.

They had three children:

• John Frederick Lascelles (born 11 June 1922, died 11 September 1951)
• Lavinia Joan Lascelles (born 27 June 1923, married Major Edward Westland Renton); then briefly, to the writer, Gavin Maxwell
• Caroline Mary Lascelles (born 15 February 1927, married Antony Alfred Lyttelton 2nd Viscount Chandos); then to David Erskine

Further reading

• The Papers of Sir Alan Lascelles, Repository Churchill Archives Centre
• "End of an era: letters and journals of Sir Alan Lascelles 1887-1920" (Hamish Hamilton, London. 1986) edited by Duff Hart-Davis.
• "In Royal Service: the Letters and Journals of Sir Alan Lascelles 1920-1936" (Hamish Hamilton, London. 1989) edited by Duff Hart-Davis.
• " King's Counsellor: Abdication and War: the Diaries of Tommy Lascelles" (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London. 2006) edited by Duff Hart-Davis.

References

• thePeerage.com Person Page 1762, retrieved 8 December 2005
• Janus - The Papers of Sir Alan Lascelles retrieved 8 December 2005