Colonel Timothy James Earl, OBE was Private Secretary to the Princess Royal between 1999 and 2002. He was educated at Brentwood School and the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst.
Commissioned into The Life Guards in 1964, he was promoted major in 1976, and was later Commanding Officer of The Life Guards. He was promoted to colonel in 1988 and attended the Royal College of Defence Studies in 1989.
He retired from the British Army in 1993 and became Secretary of the Government Hospitality Fund.
In 1999 he joined the Office of the Princess Royal.
The Household of The Princess Royal provides the administrative support to The Princess Royal, daughter of Queen Elizabeth II. It is based at Buckingham Palace, and is headed by the Private Secretary.
The Household is separate from the Royal Household and is funded from the Civil List annuity paid to The Princess Royal for her public duties - which is however reimbursed to HM Treasury by The King.
Alexander Cambridge, 1st Earl of Athlone, was a member of the extended British royal family, as a great-grandson of King George III, a brother of Queen Mary, uncle to the Kings Edward VIII and George VI, and the husband of Princess Alice of Albany. He was a British Army commander, who served as Governor-General of the Union of South Africa and Governor General of Canada.
Colonel Sir Henry Abel Smith, was a British Army officer who served as Governor of Queensland, Australia. He married Lady May Cambridge, a niece of Queen Mary, consort of King George V.
Brigadier Christopher John Beckett, 4th Baron Grimthorpe,, was a soldier, company director, landowner and peer of the realm.
An equerry is an officer of honour. Historically, it was a senior attendant with responsibilities for the horses of a person of rank. In contemporary use, it is a personal attendant, usually upon a sovereign, a member of a royal family, or a national representative. The role is equivalent to an aide-de-camp, but the term is now prevalent only among some members of the Commonwealth of Nations.
Brigadier Andrew Henry Parker Bowles is a retired British Army officer. He is the former husband of Queen Camilla, now the wife of King Charles III.
Robert Fellowes, Baron Fellowes,, was a British courtier who was private secretary to Queen Elizabeth II from 1990 to 1999. He was also known as a brother-in-law of Diana, Princess of Wales and maternal first cousin of Ronald Ferguson, the father of Sarah, Duchess of York.
The private secretary to the sovereign is the senior operational member of the Royal Household of the sovereign of the United Kingdom. The private secretary is the principal channel of communication between the monarch and the governments in most of the Commonwealth realms. They also have responsibility for the official programme and correspondence of the sovereign. Through these roles the position wields considerable influence. This is one of the most senior positions within the Royal Household.
Major General Lord Michael Fitzalan-Howard, was a senior officer in the British Army. He later served as Marshal of the Diplomatic Corps in the British Royal Household for ten years until 1982, and Gold Stick-in-Waiting and Colonel of The Life Guards for 20 years, finally retiring in 1999.
Knollys, Knolles or Knowles, the name of an English family descended from Sir Thomas Knollys, Lord Mayor of London, possibly a kinsman of the celebrated general Sir Robert Knolles. The next distinguished member of the family was Sir Francis Knollys or Knowles, English statesman, son of Sir Robert Knollys, or Knolles, a courtier in the service and favour of Henry VII and Henry VIII. Robert had also a younger son, Sir Henry, who took part in public life during the reign of Elizabeth I and who died in 1583. Lettice Knollys was pronounced the most prominent member of the family, from her birth in 1543 until her death in 1634.
Lieutenant-Colonel Martin Michael Charles Charteris, Baron Charteris of Amisfield, was a British Army officer and courtier of Queen Elizabeth II. Charteris was the longest-serving Assistant Private Secretary to the Sovereign, having served for over 18 years in that position. Later, he became Private Secretary to the Sovereign.
Rupert McGuigan was Private Secretary to The Princess Royal between 1997 and 1999.
Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Peter Wyldebore Gibbs was Private Secretary to Anne, Princess Royal, from 1982 to 1997.
Sir Edward William Spencer Ford was a courtier in the Royal Households of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth II. He is perhaps best known for writing to Elizabeth II’s private secretary regarding the 40th year of her reign, having hoped that the Queen would experience an annus mirabilis but instead finding 1992 an annus horribilis. She used the phrase in a speech to describe a year in which one of her four children was divorced, two more formally separated from their spouses, and Windsor Castle caught fire.
Major-General Alastair Andrew Bernard Reibey Bruce of Crionaich, is a journalist and television correspondent, and a senior British Army reservist and officer of arms in the Royal Household. He commanded the TA Media Operations Group before being appointed Governor of Edinburgh Castle in 2019.
The Royal Households of the United Kingdom are the collective departments that support members of the British royal family. Many members of the royal family who undertake public duties have separate households. They vary considerably in size, from the large household that supports the sovereign to the household of the Prince and Princess of Wales, with fewer members.
The Royal Households of the United Kingdom consists of royal officials and the supporting staff of the British Royal Family, as well as the Royal Household which supports the Sovereign. Each member of the Royal Family who undertakes public duties has his own separate Household.
The 1896 Birthday Honours were appointments by Queen Victoria to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of the British Empire. The appointments were made to celebrate the official birthday of The Queen, and were published in The London Gazette on 20 May and 26 May and in The Times on 20 May 1896.
As part of the British honours system, Special Honours are issued at the Monarch's pleasure at any given time. The Special Honours refer to the awards made within royal prerogative, operational honours and other honours awarded outside the New Years Honours and Birthday Honours.
On 6 February 1952, George VI, King of the United Kingdom, died at the age of 56, at Sandringham House, after a prolonged cancer. His state funeral took place on 15 February 1952. A period of national mourning commenced and his elder daughter and successor, Queen Elizabeth II, was proclaimed the new monarch by the Accession Council. George VI's coffin lay in St Mary Magdalene Church, Sandringham until 11 February when it was carried, in procession, to the nearby Wolferton railway station. The coffin was carried by train to London King's Cross railway station where another formal procession carried it to Westminster Hall where the king lay in state for three days. Some 304,000 people passed through Westminster Hall with queues up to 4 miles (6.4 km) forming.
The 2022 Trooping the Colour ceremony was held on Thursday 2 June 2022, as part of the Platinum Jubilee celebrations of Queen Elizabeth II. Over 1,400 parading soldiers, 200 horses, and 400 musicians came together in the traditional parade to mark the Queen's Official Birthday, which usually takes place on the second Saturday of June. It was the final Birthday Parade to take place under the reign of Elizabeth II before her death on 8 September later that year.