FELLOWES, Rt Hon Baron GCB GCVO QSO PC 1941-2024
Richard R
Obit in the Times of 31 July 2024:
E X T R A C T
Lord Fellowes obituary: Queen Elizabeth’s private secretary and brother-in-law of Diana
Influential adviser during nine turbulent years of royal divorce and death, and believer in ‘bloody good manners’
Lord Fellowes was private secretary to Queen Elizabeth II during nine turbulent years, through which, as her most influential adviser, he had to steer both her, and the institution of which she was titular head, through the divorces of three of her children; her “annus horribilis”, and the death of his sister-in-law, Diana, Princess of Wales…
…Fellowes entered the service of the Queen as if by pre-ordination. He had, it was said, “breathed tradition all his life”. His father was the redoubtable Sir William “Billy” Fellowes, the land agent at Sandringham from 1936 to 1964. Sir William was a shooting companion of the Queen’s father, King George VI, and, according to another member of the shoot, “never missed a pheasant to my knowledge”. His mother, Jane, was the daughter of Brigadier General Algernon Ferguson, high sheriff of Northamptonshire, and through her Fellowes was related to Sarah Ferguson, who became Duchess of York. This cousinage did not, however, deter him from expressing displeasure at her so-called misdemeanours, and the wayward duchess called him, behind his back, “Bellowes”.
When he was born, at Sandringham, in 1941, one of his first visitors was Princess Elizabeth, who, as Queen Elizabeth II, once remarked: “Robert is the only one of my private secretaries I have held in my arms.” …
…He spent three years in the army, between 1960 and 1963, and then took up a career in the City, becoming a director of the discount brokers Allen, Harvey and Ross. In 1977 he was appointed assistant private secretary to the Queen; deputy private secretary in 1986, and private secretary in 1990 after Sir William Heseltine.
But after a little over eight years in the post, which carried with it being keeper of the royal archives, he resigned and returned to the City, becoming chairman of Barclays Private Bank. It had become accepted that he would hand over to Janvrin in 1999.
On leaving royal service he was created a life peer, taking his title from the Fellowes family estate, near Norwich, which was sold in 1991. He was also a privy counsellor and chair of the Prison Reform Trust…
…In 1978 he married Lady Jane Spencer, the second daughter of Earl Spencer, and elder sister of Princess Diana, who was a bridesmaid at their wedding. Jane also had her roots in Norfolk, and home, when Fellowes’ duties did not keep him in London, at Windsor or Balmoral, was a former vicarage in Snettisham, on the Norfolk coast. The couple had three children: Laura, who is godmother to Princess Charlotte; Alexander, and Eleanor…
Lord Fellowes GCB, GCVO, QSO, PC, private secretary to Queen Elizabeth II, was born on December 11, 1941. He died of undisclosed causes on July 29, 2024, aged 82
https://www.thetimes.com/uk/obituaries/article/lord-fellowes-wbtw7ctlk
