1885-1888 The Baroness Angela Burdett-Coutts,1st Baroness Burdett-Coutts
Angela Georgina Burdett-Coutts, 1st Baroness Burdett-Coutts (21 April 1814 – 30 December 1906), born Angela Georgina Burdett, was a nineteenth-century philanthropist, the daughter of Sir Francis Burdett, 5th Baronet and Sophia, formerly Coutts, daughter of banker Thomas Coutts. In 1837 she became one of the wealthiest women in England when she inherited her grandfather's fortune of around £1.8 million (equivalent to £160,000,000 in 2019) following the death of her step grandmother, Harriot Beauclerk, Duchess of St Albans. She joined the surnames of her father and grandfather, by royal licence, to become Burdett-Coutts.
Burdett-Coutts was widely known as "the richest heiress in England". She was a great collector of paintings, including many Old Masters. Among the contemporary paintings she purchased was Robert Scott Lauder's Christ Walking on the Sea. The Reverend Richard Harris Barham, in a ballad (part of the Ingoldsby Legends) he wrote under the pen name "Thomas Ingoldsby" for Queen Victoria's coronation, referred to her as "Miss Anja-ly Coutts".
She was a great friend of both Charles Dickens and the Duke of Wellington, and she proposed marriage to the Duke despite the great disparity in their ages.
Three years later, when she was 67, she shocked polite society by marrying her 29-year-old secretary, the American-born William Lehman Ashmead Bartlett, who became MP for Westminster on 12 February 1881. Her new husband changed his surname to Burdett-Coutts. Because of her husband's American birth, a clause in her step grandmother's will forbidding her heir to marry a foreign national was invoked and Burdett-Coutts forfeited three-fifths of her income to her sister.
Burdett-Coutts spent the majority of her wealth on scholarships, endowments, and a wide range of philanthropic causes. One of her earliest philanthropic acts was to co-found, with Charles Dickens a home for young women who had "turned to a life of immorality", including theft and prostitution.
She avoided taking sides in partisan politics, but was actively interested in improving the condition of indigenous Africans, or the education and relief of the poor or suffering in any part of the world. Though she made no special distinction of creed in her charities, Burdett-Coutts was a notable benefactor of the Church of England, building two churches – including St Stephen's in Rochester Row, Westminster – and endowing church schools. As executor of the will of the Reverend Chauncy Hare Townshend (the author of several volumes of poetry), she, with the Rev. Thomas Helmore also a poet, used money from Townshend's estate to build a primary school in Westminster, known as Burdett-Coutts & Townshend Foundation Church of England Primary School.
She endowed the bishoprics of Cape Town and Adelaide (1847), and the founding bishopric of British Columbia (1857). The granite Greyfriars Bobby Fountain in Edinburgh, with a bronze statue of Greyfriars Bobby, was erected by Baroness Burdett-Coutts, in 1884, she was a co-founder of the London Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, which became the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) in 1889; she also founded the Westminster Technical Institute in 1893, and was closely involved with the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA).
Burdett-Coutts founded Columbia Market in 1869, in Bethnal Green in the East End of London, the district where much of her work was carried out. With her project in Columbia Square she became a pioneer in social housing.] Through her support of missionary and nursing efforts she was associated with Louisa Twining and Florence Nightingale. Her small housing development, Holly Village, on the corner of what was then her estate, is now in private hands and may still be seen in Highgate.
In 1871, in recognition of her philanthropic work, Queen Victoria conferred on her a suo jure peerage as Baroness Burdett-Coutts of Highgate and Brookfield in the County of Middlesex.
On 18 July 1872 she became the first woman to be presented with the Freedom of the City of London at the Guildhall, and in 1874 she became Edinburgh's first woman Freeman and was also presented with the Freedom of that city.
1889-1908 William Burdett-Coutts Esq MP
William Lehman Ashmead Bartlett Burdett-Coutts (20 January 1851 – 28 July 1921), born William Lehman Ashmead-Bartlett, was an American-born British Conservative politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1885 to 1921.
Ashmead-Bartlett was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey, United States, the son of Ellis Bartlett of Plymouth, Massachusetts, United States, and his wife Sophia Ashmead, daughter of John King Ashmead of Philadelphia. All his grandparents were British subjects and he was the younger brother of Ellis Ashmead-Bartlett. After his father's death in 1852 the family moved to England, and he was educated at Torquay and at Cholmeley's School, Highgate. He entered Keble College, Oxford in 1870 with a 1st Scholarship, graduating in 1875 with a BA (MA 1876). Ashmead-Bartlett was secretary to the philanthropist Baroness Burdett-Coutts.
He owned the Columbia Market (built in 1869 by Baroness Burdett-Coutts), and in connection with this, he built up a large fishing fleet in the North Sea, and a considerable trade in vegetables. However, a proposed railway to the market was never built, and competition from Billingsgate Fish Market led to the closing of the market in 1886.
In 1877, he was Special Commissioner to Turkey, along with Sir Francis de Winton to administer the Turkish Compassionate Fund. This had been initiated by the combined efforts of Baroness Burdett-Coutts, the Ambassador in Constantinople Sir Henry Layard, and his wife, for the relief of victims of the Russo-Turkish War (1877–78). In recognition of his work, he received the Collar and Star of the Order of the Medjidie from Sultan Abdul Hamid II. In 1879–80, he visited Ireland to assist in organising relief in the distressed districts and largely developed Baroness Burdett-Coutts' scheme for benefiting the Irish fisheries. He married the baroness, who was 37 years older than he was, on 12 February 1881 and took her surname. In 1883, he was on the Executive Committee of the International Fisheries Exhibition. He was chairman of the Highgate Committee for enlarging Hampstead Heath.
William Burdett-Coutts was first elected to Parliament in the 1885 general election for the London constituency of Westminster, which had become a one-seat constituency from a two-seat one. He remained the seat's MP until it was abolished in the 1918 general election, when he was elected for the new Westminster Abbey constituency. He was appointed to the Privy Council in the 1921 New Year's Honours List.
The Baroness died in 1906 and there were no children of the marriage. He was the executor and beneficiary of her will, and carried on much of her philanthropic work after her death.
Burdett-Coutts died aged 70, in St Pancras, London, while in office, and a by-election was held to replace him.
1909-1913 Lieutenant Colonel Sir Charles Arthur Frederick
Lieutenant Colonel Sir Charles Arthur Andrew Frederick GCVO KCB (9 April 1861 – 21 December 1913) was a British Army officer and courtier. He was Master of the King's Household and an Extra Equerry to King Edward VII and to Queen Alexandra.
He was born in Torquay, Devon, son of Arthur Thomas Frederick. His family were descended from that of the Frederick baronets: Charles's great-great-grandfather Major-General Marescoe Frederick was a younger brother of Sir John Frederick, 4th Baronet.
As well as pursuing a military career in which he reached the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the Coldstream Guards, Frederick held several posts in the Royal Household. He was appointed as an Extra Equerry to King Edward VII on 9 November 1902, and served until the King′s death in 1910, then as Extra Equerry to King George V and to Queen Alexandra from 1910 to 1913. He was Deputy Master of the Household from 1901 to 1907, Acting Secretary of the Board of Green Cloth from 1903 to 1907 and Master of the Household from 1907 to 1912.
For his service during the Coronation of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra, he was invested as a Member (fourth class) of the Royal Victorian Order (MVO) two days after the ceremony, on 11 August 1902. He was promoted to a Commander (CVO) of the Order in the 1903 Birthday Honours list in November 1903, and later promoted to a Knight Grand Cross (GCVO).
Sir Charles died in Brighton, unmarried, of heart failure in 1913. His funeral was held on Christmas Eve Chapel Royal at St. James's Palace and conducted by the Canon of Windsor, Edgar Sheppard.
1913-1936 Lieutenant Colonel Sir Derek Keppel
Lieutenant Colonel Sir Derek William George Keppel GCVO KCB CMG CIE VD (7 April 1863 – 26 April 1944) was a member of the British Royal Household.
Keppel was a son of the 7th Earl of Albemarle and was educated at Charterhouse School. He joined the army and rose to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in The Prince of Wales' Own Civil Service Rifles and served in India.
Keppel was appointed an equerry to the Duke of York in 1893, and was reappointed as such when the latter became Prince of Wales in 1901. On the Prince´s accession as King George V in 1910, Keppel was appointed Deputy Master of the Household and in 1912 promoted to Master of the Household, serving in this post until the King's death in 1936. He continued as the only Master of the Household under King Edward VIII's short reign, and on the accession of King George VI he returned to being an equerry until his own death in 1944.
On 20 June 1898, he married Hon. Bridget Louisa Harbord, (later known as Hon. Lady Keppel), a daughter of the 5th Baron Suffield, and they had three girls.
British decorations
• CMG : Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George - 26 November 1901 - after accompanying the Prince of Wales on his 1901 Commonwealth tour
• CIE : Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire
• KCB : Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath
• GCVO: Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order
Foreign decorations
• Czechoslovakia: Order of the White Lion
1937-1941 Brigadier General Sir Smith Child, 2nd Baronet
Sir Smith Hill Child, 2nd Baronet, GCVO, CB, CMG, DSO, DL (19 September 1880 – 11 November 1958) was an officer in the British Army and a Conservative Party politician.
Hill Child was educated at Eton College and Christ Church, Oxford. He succeeded his grandfather, Sir Smith Child, 1st Baronet, as 2nd Baronet of Newfield Hall, near Tunstall, Staffordshire, in 1896.
Hill Child was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the 3rd Battalion Royal Scots, a part-time Militia battalion, on 25 October 1899. The battalion was embodied for full-time service in the Second Boer War on 5 December that year, and in early March 1900 left Queenstown on the SS Oriental for South Africa. They landed at East London on 21 March 1900 and by July was engaged in operations against Boer Commandos in the Transvaal. Hill Child was wounded, and returned to the United Kingdom during Christmas 1900. He was promoted to Lieutenant in the militia battalion on 6 March 1901, but in July was commissioned into the Regular Army as a Second Lieutenant in the newly raised Irish Guards. Promotion to Lieutenant in the regiment came on 1 March 1902, and he was chosen to carry the colours at the first presentation of Colours to the Regiment on 30 May 1902, following which he was appointed a Member of the Royal Victorian Order (MVO). He retired from Regular service in 1909 and was placed on the Reserve of Officers in 1910.
On 8 February 1910, Hill Child was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel in the part-time Territorial Force and was appointed commanding officer of the II North Midland Brigade in the Royal Field Artillery. He was in command when the brigade was mobilised as part of the 46th (North Midland) Division in the First World War and served with it on the Western Front. The brigade was later numbered CCXXXI (231). 46th Division saw its first major action at the Battle of the Hohenzollern Redoubt in October 1915. Hill Child was awarded the DSO in 1916.
At the Battle of Gommecourt on 1 July 1916, organised as a diversion from the main Battle of the Somme, the divisional artillery was allocated the task of wire-cutting: CCXXXI and another brigade formed the Left group, under the command of Hill Child. This group supported two battalions (1/5th and 1/7th (Robin Hoods)) of the Sherwood Foresters, but the German wire entanglements were in dead ground and could not been seen by artillery observers. The attack was a costly failure, and Hill Child was a member of the court of inquiry into the circumstances.
On 13 March 1918 the Commander Royal Artillery (CRA) of 46th Division was wounded, and Hill Child was appointed to act in his place. A week later he was promoted to Brigadier General and confirmed as CRA.
The 46th Division had been very unlucky during the war, the infantry in particular taking appalling casualties at the Hohenzollern Redoubt and Gommecourt, but it gained revenge at the Battle of the St Quentin Canal on 29 September 1918 when it performed one of the great feats of World War I by crossing the canal and breaking open the Hindenburg Line. Careful artillery preparation and support was an integral part of this success. Hill Child had nine brigades of field artillery under his command. The bombardment began on the night of 26/27 September with harassing fire and gas shells, followed with intense bombardment with high explosive shells until the morning of the assault. Every field gun was used in carefully timed barrages: 'creeping barrages' (including smoke shells) ahead of the attacking troops, with pauses at the end of each phase, including a 'standing barrage' of three hours to allow mopping-up of the first objectives to be carried out, and the second wave of troops to pass through and renew the attack behind the creeping barrage.[18] The first of these creeping barrages actually progressed at twice the normal pace while the infantry rushed downhill to seize the canal crossings; it was described in the Official History as 'one of the finest ever seen'.
The attack was a brilliant success, and by the afternoon the field artillery batteries were crossing the canal by the bridges that had been captured or thrown across, and were coming into action on the far side. 46th Division was prominent in the pursuit of the Germans leading to the Armistice in November 1918.
During the war Hill Child was Mentioned in Despatches, awarded the French Croix de Guerre, the Companionship of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) and, in 1919, the Companionship of the Bath (CB).
He continued in the Territorial Army after the war as CRA of 46th (North Midland) Division from 1920 to 1924, after which he was placed in the Regular Army Reserve of Officers.
He was elected at the 1918 general election as Coalition Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) for Stone in Staffordshire, and held the seat until he stood down at the 1922 general election.
He was also DL and JP for the county of Staffordshire between 1912 and 1949, with an interval between 1938 and 1941, as well as for the counties of London and Berkshire from 1936 until he retired from full-time royal service.
Child was appointed in 1927 Gentleman Usher in Ordinary in the Royal Household by King George V and promoted Deputy Master of the Household in 1929.] He became Master in the "Year of three kings", 1936, serving King George VI until he retired from the post in 1941, but remained from 1937 Extra-Equerry to the King and, from 1952, his successor Elizabeth II.
He was appointed GCVO for his personal services to the Monarch and the Royal Household in 1941, having been previously CVO in 1934 and KCVO in 1937. He also received during his service foreign honours:
Grand Commander, Order of St Olav of Norway.
Commander of the Legion of Honour of France.
Commander of the Order of the Crown of Belgium.
Commander of the Order of the Crown of Romania.
Commander of the Order of the Two Rivers of Iraq.
He inherited the baronetcy on the death of his grandfather, who had also been a Conservative MP. The title became extinct on his death in 1958, aged 78. He had made his last home at Whitton Hall in Shropshire by 1948 and was buried in the parish churchyard at nearby Westbury.
1941-1953 Lieutenant Colonel Sir Piers Legh
Lieutenant Colonel Sir Piers Walter Legh GCVO KCB CMG CIE OBE JP (12 December 1890 – 16 October 1955) was a British Army officer and a senior member of the Royal Household.
Second son of the 2nd Baron Newton and Evelyn Caroline Bromley Davenport, Legh was educated at Eton and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst before being commissioned into the Grenadier Guards.
He served as a Military Secretary during the First World War, being mentioned in dispatches. In 1919, he was appointed Equerry to the Prince of Wales until 1936 and then to King George VI from 1937-46 (and then as Extra Equerry from 1946-55).
In 1941, Legh became Master of the Household, a post he held until his retirement in 1953. He was invested as a Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order in 1948. He was also a Justice of the Peace for London and Berkshire.
On 15 November 1920, he married Sarah Polk Shaughnessy (d. 1955, née Bradford), the widow of Capt. Hon. Alfred Shaughnessy and they had one daughter, Diana Evelyn Legh (b. 1924), who was the first wife of John Wodehouse, 4th Earl of Kimberley.
1954-1967 Major Sir Mark Vane Milbank, 4th Baronet
Major Sir Mark Vane Milbank, 4th Baronet, KCVO, MC (11 January 1907 – 4 April 1984) was a British Army officer and courtier, who served as Master of the Household from 1954 to 1967.
He was the son of Sir Frederick Richard Milbank, 3rd Baronet and Harriet Anne Dorothy Wilson. He was educated at Eton College and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst.
Milbank was commissioned into the Coldstream Guards in 1930, and served as the Aide-de-Camp to the Governor of Bombay between 1933 and 1938. He saw active service in the Second World War, and was awarded the Military Cross in 1945.
He was Comptroller to the Governor General of Canada between 1946 and 1952, before being appointed Deputy Master of the Household. In 1953 Milbank became Master of the Household and was invested as a Member of the Royal Victorian Order. He held the position until 1967, became a CVO in 1958, and was knighted as a KCVO in 1962. Between 1954 and 1984 he was an Extra Equerry to Elizabeth II.
He played first-class cricket for the British Army cricket team in 1930. He married, firstly, Lady Angela Isabel Nellie Larnach-Nevill, daughter of Guy Larnach-Nevill, 4th Marquess of Abergavenny and Isabel Nellie Larnach, on 20 October 1930. They had no children, and he and Lady Angela Isabel Nellie Larnach-Nevill divorced in 1933. He married, secondly, Hon. Verena Aileen Maxwell, daughter of Arthur Maxwell, 11th Baron Farnham and Aileen Selina Coote, on 12 February 1938. Together they had two children.
On 29 April 1964 he succeeded to his father's baronetcy.
1967-1973 Brigadier Sir Geoffrey Hardy-Roberts
Brigadier Sir Geoffrey Paul Hardy-Roberts KCVO CB CBE JP DL (16 May 1907 – 9 April 1997) was a British Army officer, Conservative politician and courtier, who served as Master of the Household between 1967 and 1973.
Hardy-Roberts was born Geoffrey Paul Francis Jacques Roberts, but changed his name by deed poll in 1937. He was educated at Eton College and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, before commissioning into the 9th Queen's Royal Lancers in 1926. He initially served in India and was promoted to lieutenant in 1929. In 1933 he returned to the United Kingdom, and served as Adjustant of his regiment between 1933 and 1935. He retired from the army with the rank of captain in 1937. On 28 April 1938 he was elected unopposed to the London County Council to fill a casual vacancy. He sat as a Municipal Reform Party councillor representing Lewisham West and held the seat until elections were resumed after the Second World War in 1946.
Hardy-Roberts' commission was reactivated in 1939 following the outbreak of war. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel in 1941 and that same year was invested as an Officer of the Order of the British Empire. He saw active service in the Western Desert Campaign and the Italian Campaign, before working as Chief of Staff to General Sir Miles Dempsey between 1943 and 1945. In 1944, Hardy-Roberts was appointed a CBE and mentioned in dispatches while serving in the North-West Europe Campaign of 1944–1945, and he was made a Companion of the Order of the Bath in 1945. He also made an Officer of the Legion of Merit by the United States government.
In the 1945 United Kingdom general election, Hardy Roberts stood as the Conservative candidate in Wimbledon, but narrowly lost the usually safe Conservative seat to Arthur Palmer of the Labour Party. Between 1946 and 1967 he worked as Secretary-Superintendent of Middlesex Hospital and was a Justice of the Peace in Sussex. He resigned his commission from the Regular Reserve of Army Officers in 1958 and was granted the rank of brigadier. In 1964 he served as Deputy Lieutenant for West Sussex and he became High Sheriff of Sussex in 1965.
In 1967, he was appointed Master of the Household of Elizabeth II, serving in the position until 1973. From 1967 to his death in 1997, Hardy-Roberts was also an Extra Equerry to the Queen. He was created a Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order in 1972.
• Malaysia : Honorary Commander of the Order of Loyalty to the Crown of Malaysia (P.S.M.) (1972)
1973-1986 Vice Admiral Sir Peter Ashmore
Vice-Admiral Sir Peter William Beckwith Ashmore KCB KCVO DSC (4 February 1921 – 31 July 2002) was a Royal Navy officer. After retirement from the navy he became Master of the Household to the Sovereign.
Ashmore was the son of Vice Admiral Leslie Ashmore: he was educated at Yardley Court and the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth; he joined the Royal Navy in 1938.
On graduation from Dartmouth, Ashmore served in the Second World War in the destroyer HMS Kipling in which he commanded the ship's guns during an operation to rescue survivors from two other British ships off Crete in May 1941. After the War he became Deputy Director of the Royal Navy Staff College at Greenwich in 1957, Captain (Frigates) of the Dartmouth Training Squadron in 1960 and a member of the Plans Division at the Admiralty in 1963. He went on to be Flag Officer, Admiralty Interview Board in 1966, Chief of Staff of the Western Fleet and to NATO Commander-in-Chief Eastern Atlantic in 1967 and Chief of the Allied Staff at Headquarters Allied Naval Forces Southern Europe in 1970 before he retired in 1972.
In retirement Ashmore was Master of the Household to the Sovereign. His elder brother was Admiral Sir Edward Ashmore who became Admiral of the Fleet and Chief of the Defence Staff.
1986-1992 Rear Admiral Sir Paul Greening
Rear Admiral Sir Paul Woollven Greening GCVO (4 June 1928 – 5 November 2008) was a Royal Navy officer and courtier, who served as Naval Secretary and Master of the Household.
Educated at Mowden School and the Nautical College at Pangbourne, Greening joined the Royal Navy in 1946. He was given command of the minesweepers HMS Asheldham, HMS Messina, HMS Lewiston and then the frigate HMS Jaguar. He was appointed Fleet Plans Officer for the Far East Fleet in 1969 and, following his promotion to Captain, given command of the frigate HMS Aurora in 1970. He went on to be Captain, Naval Drafting in 1971, Director of Seaman Officer Appointments in 1974 and Captain of the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth in 1976. Promoted to Rear Admiral, he became Naval Secretary in 1978 and Flag Officer, Royal Yachts with specific responsibility for HM Yacht Britannia in 1981. He was responsible for planning the honeymoon of the Prince and Princess of Wales in August 1981. He retired in 1985.
He was appointed an Extra Equerry to the Queen in 1983 and Master of the Household of the Sovereign from 1986 to 1992.
In 1951 he married Monica West (pre-deceased); they had a son and daughter.
1992-2000 Major General Sir Simon Cooper
Major General Sir Simon Christie Cooper, GCVO born 1936 is a retired British Army officer who served as Major General commanding the Household Division and General Officer Commanding London District and later Master of the Household to the Sovereign.
Born the son of Major General Kenneth Cooper and educated at Winchester College and at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, Cooper was commissioned into the Life Guards in 1956.
He served in Aden, then in London, and in the British Army of the Rhine from 1957 to 1963 when he became Adjutant of the Household Cavalry Regiment. He next became Aide-de-Camp to the Chief of the General Staff in 1965. In 1966 and 1967 he served in Borneo during the Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation and Malaya during the Malayan Emergency.
Cooper attended the Staff College, Camberley in 1968, and qualified as a staff officer. From 1969 to 1975 he was in the British Army of the Rhine, and was commanding officer of the Life Guards from 1974 to 1976. He then served as a General Staff Officer at the Staff College from 1976 to 1978 when he became officer commanding the Household Cavalry and Silver Stick to Her Majesty The Queen. In 1981 and 1982 he was officer commanding the Royal Armoured Corps Centre.
In 1983 Cooper attended the Royal College of Defence Studies. He was promoted to Major General on 20 October 1983, and was Director of the Royal Armoured Corps from 1984 to 1987 when he was appointed Commandant of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. From 1989 to 1991 he was Major-General commanding the Household Division and General Officer Commanding London District. He retired on 26 August 1991.
He was Master of the Household to the Sovereign from 1992 to 2000. He was also made an Extra Equerry in 1992.
He was also made Honorary Colonel of the Royal Yeomanry (Westminster Dragoons) in 1987.
Cooper was appointed a Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order in 1991 on completion of his term commanding the Household Division, and was advanced to Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order on his retirement as Master of the Household in 2000.
2000-2005 Vice Admiral Sir Anthony Blackburn
Vice Admiral Sir David Anthony James 'Tom' Blackburn KCVO CB CStJ born 18 January 1945, is a former British Royal Navy officer who served as Master of the Household between 2000 and 2005.
Blackburn was appointed to his first command, the minesweeper HMS Kirkliston, in 1972. He became Equerry to the Duke of Edinburgh in 1976, Executive Officer of the cruiser HMS Antrim in 1978 and Commander of the destroyer HMS Birmingham in 1983. He went on to become commanding officer of the destroyer HMS York and Captain D3 Squadron in 1987, Commodore on Clyde and Naval Base Commander Clyde in 1990 and commanding officer of the frigate HMS Cornwall as well as Captain of the 2nd Frigate Squadron Squadron in 1992.
After that Blackburn became Head of the British Defence Staff and Defence Attaché in Washington, D.C. in 1994 and Chief of Staff to the Commander-in-Chief Allied Naval Forces Southern Europe, Naples in 1997.
On leaving the Royal Navy Blackburn became Master of the Household, in which office he served from 2000 to 2005.
He was a member of the Pensions appeal tribunal from 2005, chairman of The Marine Society, the Sea Cadets from 2006 and St John Ambulance London from 2006, as well as Deputy Chairman of the Royal Yachting Association from 2007.
Blackburn was made a LVO in 1978, and a KCVO in 2004. He was also made a Companion of the Order of the Bath in 1999.
2005-2013 Air Marshal Sir David Walker (RAF Administrative Officer)
Air Marshal Sir David Allan Walker, KCVO, OBE, DL born 14 July 1956, is a Director at Alexander Mann Solutions, and a member of the Advisory Board of Auticon. He is a former senior Royal Air Force officer and Master of the Household to The Queen.
Walker was commissioned in the Administrative Branch of the Royal Air Force (RAF) on 1 September 1974. He was regraded to pilot officer on 15 July 1977 (seniority 15 October 1975), promoted to flying officer on 15 January 1978 (seniority 15 April 1976), and promoted to flight lieutenant on 15 October 1980. Walker was appointed a Member of the Royal Victorian Order (MVO) in 1992, and an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1995.
Walker became Station commander at RAF Halton in 1997, Director of Corporate Communications for the RAF in 1998 and Director of Personnel and Training Policy in 2002. He went on to be Air Officer Commanding the RAF Training Group in 2003 before being seconded to Buckingham Palace in 2005 as Master of the Household to the Sovereign. Walker was knighted as a Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (KCVO) in the 2011 Birthday Honours, being invested in a personal audience with Queen Elizabeth II on 13 July 2011.
On retiring from the Royal Household in 2013, Walker joined HSBC as Senior Advisor to the Group Executive Chairman, and undertook a similar role as an independent consultant to Barclays Bank, from 2014 to 2015, advising the Group CEO. In 2015 he joined the Board of Alexander Mann Solutions, and became a Senior Advisor to PwC until 2018. In 2016 he became a member of the Advisory Board of Auticon, a social enterprise providing employment for autistic people in IT consulting.
Walker is the son of Allan Walker and Audrey (née Brothwell). In 1983, he married Jane Alison Fraser Calder.
2013-present Vice Admiral Tony Johnstone-Burt
Vice Admiral Charles Anthony Johnstone-Burt, CB, OBE born 1 February 1958 is a retired Royal Navy officer who is currently serving as the Master of the Household to Queen Elizabeth II.
Johnstone-Burt was educated at Wellington College[1][2] and Van Mildert College at Durham University, where he took Joint Honours in Psychology and Anthropology in 1980.
Johnstone-Burt joined the Royal Navy in 1977 and served in HMS Active during the Falklands War following his promotion to Lieutenant in January 1982. He qualified as a helicopter pilot in 1983 flying Sea Kings and Lynx helicopters. He qualified as a principal warfare officer and served in several frigates before being appointed as first lieutenant and second-in-command of HMS Scylla in 1991. He was appointed commanding officer of HMS Brave in 1994 and went on to study at the US Naval War College, where courses are affiliated with Salve Regina University in Rhode Island, taking an MA in International Relations from 1996 to 1997. He also attended the Higher Command and Staff Course at the Joint Services Command and Staff College in 2000.
He was appointed commanding officer of HMS Montrose and Captain of the 6th Frigate Squadron in 2000 before becoming Commodore of the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth in 2002 and then Captain of HMS Ocean in 2004. He went on to be Deputy Commander and Chief of Staff of the Joint Helicopter Command in 2005, Flag Officer, Scotland, Northern England and Northern Ireland in 2006 and Commander of the Joint Helicopter Command in 2008 before being appointed Director of Counter Narcotics and International Organised Crime at HQ ISAF in Kabul, Afghanistan in 2011. Promoted to Vice Admiral, he became the Chief of Staff to NATO's Supreme Allied Command Transformation at Norfolk, Virginia in November 2011 and held this post until October 2013.
Johnstone-Burt was appointed Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) in the 2013 New Year Honours.
In 2013 Johnstone-Burt became the Master of the Household to the Sovereign.