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same as they had for her forebears, with the Lord Chamberlain (then the Earl of
Scarbrough) at the head of the household, with, under him, the heads of the six
departments. These include the Private Secretary, who deals with the Queen’s official
business; the Keeper of the Privy Purse (then Lord Tryon, whose name was made the
object of much mirth during the debates on the Queen’s Civil List in 1962), who acts as
the Queen’s treasurer; and the Comptroller in the Lord Chamberlain’s Office, responsible
for great royal occasions such as weddings and funerals, and more mundane affairs such
as garden-parties, investitures and the organization of state visits by foreign heads of
state. Until 1987 the Lord Chamberlain’s Office also controlled the royal collections of
books, paintings, furniture and works of art with their respective Librarian and
Surveyors. Within the scope of the Lord Chamberlain’s Office are lords-in-waiting,
gentlemen-at-arms, Yeomen of the Guard, the Royal Company of Archers, the Marshal
of the Diplomatic Corps, the Secretary of the Central Chancery in charge of the various
Orders, and exotic figures like the Queen’s Bargemaster and the Royal Watermen; the
Comptroller also supervises the annual upping of the Queen’s swans. Other departments
are those of the Master of the Household, with responsibility for domestic arrangements,
staff, catering and entertaining, and the Crown Equerry, in charge of the Royal Mews,
which includes horses, carriages, cars and attendant staff. Among the Lord
Chamberlain’s ceremonial duties is to attend the Queen on such occasions as state
banquets when he has the unenviable task of walking backwards in front of her holding
his white staff of office until she reaches her seat, and at the funeral of the sovereign he
breaks this staff over the royal coffin before it is interred (this is easier than it sounds,
made foolproof by the fact that the staff is constructed in two parts screwed together).
The three so-called ‘Great Officers of State’ whose titles date back to the Middle Ages –
the Lord Steward, the Master of the Horse and the Lord Great Chamberlain (whose office
is hereditary and held by the Marquesses of Cholmondeley for alternate reigns) – are not
required to do anything beyond occasional ceremonial duties.
The Mistress of the Robes (almost always a duchess – the Duchess of Devonshire in
1957) is the grandest of the Queen’s Ladies. She has nothing to do with the Queen’s
clothes and her duties are largely honorary, being in charge of the rota of the ladies-inwaiting
and attendance on state occasions and important state visits. Below her come
the Ladies of the Bedchamber, usually the wives of peers who attend the Queen on
important occasions and foreign tours but do not do the everyday work like the other
ladies-in-waiting, the four Women of the Bedchamber. These are almost always titled
and attend the Queen on public and semi-private occasions, make her private as
opposed to official arrangements, deal with her private correspondence and letters
written to her by children, and do her personal shopping for presents, etc. They work on
fortnightly rotas and beyond perks like bed and board at the various royal palaces and
residences (if they want it) get very little remuneration. They were and are recruited
informally on the basis of private recommendation and personality; Elizabeth has to feel
that they are the kind of person she feels at home with and can share jokes with.
Elizabeth’s domestic staff have always been important to her; they are never to be