Alan Lascelles

Sir Alan Frederick "Tommy" Lascelles, GCB, GCVO, CMG, MC (/ˈlæsəls/ LASS-əlss; 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 George VI and Elizabeth II.

[1][2] He was thus a cousin of Henry Lascelles, 6th Earl of Harewood, who married Mary, Princess Royal, sister of his employers, Edward VIII and George VI.

[3] After attending Marlborough College, followed by Trinity College, Oxford, Lascelles served in France with the Bedfordshire Yeomanry during the First World War, where he rose to the rank of captain and was awarded the Military Cross,[4] after which he became aide-de-camp to his brother-in-law Lord Lloyd, the Governor of Bombay from 1919 to 1920.

"[5] Lascelles became Assistant Private Secretary to George VI, some time after the new king's accession.

In 1952 he became Private Secretary to Elizabeth II, a role he held until the end of 1953, so overseeing the early days of her reign and the Coronation.

[12] He had been asked by then Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill twice and by the Queen once whether he would like to go to the House of Lords with a hereditary peerage but he declined.

[12] He did, however, accept appointment as a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath which, he said, "rated much higher than a peerage".

Lascelles is portrayed by Paul Brooke in the 2002 film Bertie and Elizabeth and Pip Torrens in the 2016 Netflix series The Crown.