Michael Adeane, Baron Adeane

Lieutenant Colonel The Right Honourable The Lord Adeane GCB, GCVO, PC
Adeane in 1953
Private Secretary to the Sovereign
In office 1953–1972
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Preceded by	Sir Alan Lascelles
Succeeded by	Sir Martin Charteris
Personal details
Nationality	British
Alma mater	Magdalene College, Cambridge

Lieutenant Colonel Michael Edward Adeane, Baron Adeane, GCB, GCVO, PC (30 September 1910 – 30 April 1984), was Private Secretary to Elizabeth II during the first twenty years of her reign.

Adeane was a maternal grandson of Lord Stamfordham, Private Secretary to Queen Victoria and George V. He was educated at Eton and graduated from Magdalene College, Cambridge in 1934 with a Master of Arts degree. He then travelled to Canada and was aide-de-camp to Lord Bessborough from 1934 to 1934 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. In 1961 during a Royal visit to Nepal he was credited with a share a tiger kill with Sir Christopher Bonham-Carter in a royal tiger hunt.^[2] 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.^[2]

Adeane was appointed a Member of the Royal Victorian Order (MVO) in 1946,^[3] a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) in 1947,^[4] he was promoted to Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (KCVO) in 1951,^[5] and Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) in 1955.^[6] In 1962 he was promoted to Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order (GCVO)^[7] and in 1968 to Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath (GCB).^[8] In 1959, Adeane received the Grand Decoration in Gold with Sash for Services to the Republic of Austria^[9] and on 20 April 1972, he was created a life peer as Baron Adeane, of Stamfordham in the County of Northumberland.^[10] His wife died in 1994.

His son, the Hon. Edward Adeane, a noted barrister, was Private Secretary to the Prince of Wales 1979-1985.

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 (Time Inc) 50 (12): 51–54. ISSN 0024-3019.
3. The London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 37598. p. 2764. 13 June 1946.
4. The London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 37977. p. 2574. 12 June 1947.
5. The London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 39243. p. 3065. 7 June 1951.
6. The London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 40366. p. 3. 1 January 1955.
7. The London Gazette: no. 42617. p. 1941. 9 March 1962.
8. The London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 44484. p. 3. 1 January 1968.
9. "Reply to a parliamentary question" (pdf) (in German). p. 213. Retrieved 18 October 2012.
10. The London Gazette: no. 45656. p. 4911. 25 April 1972.

External links

• Lynam, Ruth. "Tiger Hunt and Ring around a Rhino," Life, March 24, 1961, pp. 50-54.