Michael Adeane, Baron Adeane

Michael Edward Adeane, Baron Adeane, GCB, GCVO, PC (30 September 1910 – 30 April 1984) was Private Secretary to Elizabeth II for 19 years, between 1953 and 1972.


The Lord Adeane

GCB GCVO PC
Adeane in 1953
Private Secretary to the Sovereign
In office
1 January 1954  1 April 1972
MonarchElizabeth II
Preceded bySir Alan Lascelles
Succeeded bySir Martin Charteris
Assistant Private Secretary to the Sovereign
In office
1945–1953
MonarchGeorge VI
Elizabeth II
Member of the House of Lords
Lord Temporal
In office
20 April 1972  30 April 1984
Life Peerage
Personal details
Born
Michael Edward Adeane

(1910-09-30)30 September 1910
London, England
Died30 April 1984(1984-04-30) (aged 73)
Aberdeen, Scotland
NationalityBritish
Spouse(s)
Helen Chetwynd-Stapleton
(m. 1939)
Children2, including Edward Adeane
Alma materMagdalene College, Cambridge

Early life and education

Adeane was the son of Captain Henry Robert Augustus Adeane (1882–1914), by his wife Hon. Victoria Eugenie Bigge (d.1969). His paternal grandfather was Admiral Edward Stanley Adeane, and his maternal grandfather was Arthur Bigge, 1st Baron Stamfordham, Private Secretary to Queen Victoria and King George V. Adeane was educated at Eton College and graduated from Magdalene College, Cambridge in 1934 with a Master of Arts degree.

Career

After graduating Adeane travelled to Canada and was aide-de-camp to Lord Bessborough, Governor General of Canada from 1934 to 1935, and then to his successor, Lord Tweedsmuir until 1936.

Adeane then returned to England and became George VI's Assistant Private Secretary from 1945 after five and a half years on active military duty,[1] a post he held until the latter's death in 1952. He continued in that post for Queen Elizabeth until 1953 when he was promoted to Private Secretary and admitted to the Privy Council.[2]

In 1961, during a Royal visit to Nepal, Adeane was credited with a share of a tiger kill with Sir Christopher Bonham-Carter in a royal tiger hunt.[3] The tiger shooting role had fallen to him after the Queen had declined, the Duke of Edinburgh had been unable to shoot due to having his trigger finger in a splint and the then Foreign Secretary Alec Douglas-Home had missed twice.[3]

Personal life

On 10 January 1939 Adeane married Helen Chetwynd-Stapleton (c. 1920 – c. 1995), together they had a daughter and a son.[4] Their son, Edward Adeane, a barrister, was Private Secretary to the Prince of Wales from 1979 to 1985.

On 30 April 1984 Adeane died of heart failure in Aberdeen, Scotland. He was cremated at Golders Green Crematorium.[4]

Honours

Adeane was appointed a Member of the Royal Victorian Order (MVO) in 1946,[5] a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) in 1947,[6] he was promoted to Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (KCVO) in 1951,[7] and Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) in 1955.[8] In 1962 he was promoted to Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order (GCVO)[9] and in 1968 to Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath (GCB).[10]

In 1959, Adeane received the Grand Decoration in Gold with Sash for Services to the Republic of Austria[11] and on 20 April 1972, he was created a life peer as Baron Adeane, of Stamfordham in the County of Northumberland.[12]

Adeane is portrayed on-screen in the Netflix original series The Crown by actor Will Keen.[13] Following the recast of the series as of season 3, he is played by David Rintoul.

References

  1. "King's Counsellor: Abdication and War: the Diaries of Tommy Lascelles" (Phoenix, London. 2007) edited by Duff Hart-Davis., p. 319
  2. Lynam, Ruth (1961). "Tiger hunt and ring around a rhino". Life. 50 (12): 51–54. ISSN 0024-3019.
  3. Adeane, Michael Edward, Baron Adeane (1910–1984), courtier | Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/30752.
  4. "No. 37598". The London Gazette (Supplement). 13 June 1946. p. 2764.
  5. "No. 37977". The London Gazette (Supplement). 12 June 1947. p. 2574.
  6. "No. 39243". The London Gazette (Supplement). 7 June 1951. p. 3065.
  7. "No. 40366". The London Gazette (Supplement). 1 January 1955. p. 3.
  8. "No. 42617". The London Gazette. 9 March 1962. p. 1941.
  9. "No. 44484". The London Gazette (Supplement). 1 January 1968. p. 3.
  10. "Reply to a parliamentary question" (pdf) (in German). p. 213. Retrieved 18 October 2012.
  11. "No. 45656". The London Gazette. 25 April 1972. p. 4911.
  12. "Will Keen - Actor Summary". IMDb. Retrieved 28 December 2017.
Court offices
Preceded by
Henry Hunloke
Page of Honour
1923–1927
Succeeded by
Jock Colville
Preceded by
Alan Lascelles
Private Secretary to the Sovereign
1953–1972
Succeeded by
Martin Charteris
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.