He was instrumental in guiding the royal family during some of its most turbulent years, and is credited as one of its most loyal and discreet senior aides.
Lord Fellowes, GCB, GCVO, QSO, PC, died on July 29 of undisclosed causes.
Paying tribute, Earl Spencer said: “My absolutely exceptional brother-in-law Robert is no longer with us.
“A total gentleman, in all the best meanings of that word, he was a man of humour, wisdom and utter integrity. I’m deeply proud to have been his brother-in-law.”
In a rare interview published in The Daily Telegraph in 2008, it was said: “Few know more about the royal family than Robert Fellowes, and few have said less.”
Born on December 11, 1941, to the land agent at Sandringham, one of his first visitors was the young Princess Elizabeth who, decades later, said: “Robert is the only one of my private secretaries I have held in my arms.”
Lord Robert Fellowes, uncle to The Prince of Wales and The Duke of Sussex, has died aged 82.
He was also the former Private Secretary to Elizabeth II and Princess Diana’s brother-in-law. pic.twitter.com/zgxbpR2a5k
— The Crown Chronicles (@crownchronicles) July 31, 2024
He was educated at Eton, was a keen cricketer and also commissioned in the Scots Guards before taking up a career in the City.
In 1977, he became assistant private secretary to the late Queen, promoted to deputy private secretary in 1986, and again to private secretary in 1990 following Sir William Heseltine.
He married Lady Jane Spencer in April 1978 at Westminster Abbey, with Princess Diana as a bridesmaid, and the couple went on to have three children.
His time as Queen Elizabeth II’s closest aide included the “annus horribilis”, Windsor Castle fire, the death of his sister-in-law Diana, and the divorces of Prince Charles, Prince Andrew and Princess Anne.
Lord Fellowes was largely responsible for steering the royal family’s public response to the death of Diana, navigating public outrage at the Queen’s choice to shield her grieving young grandsons at Balmoral and writing the famous speech in which she addressed the nation as “your Queen and as a grandmother”.
Diana's brother Charles Earl Spencer and his brother-in-law Sir Robert Fellowes. Photo / Getty Images
He was among the senior courtiers who, reading the febrile public mood and stung by criticism of the Queen as unfeeling, persuaded the royal family to return to London.
An unlikely moderniser, he also convinced the Queen and Prince Charles to pay tax on their income and advised the monarch throughout the very public disintegration of Charles and Diana’s marriage.
His role did not endear him to his wife’s sister, who classed him as one of her dreaded “men in grey suits”, but when asked about it much later by the Telegraph, he said of Diana: “I was deeply fond of her. She was a very good person. She found it difficult in life to find happiness, and I’m sad for people who have that situation.”
Following tabloid revelations about the Duchess of York’s holiday romance and the Squidgygate tapes, a profile in The Independent recorded that “Sir Robert has possibly just had the worst week of his life, although nowadays most of his weeks must feel like that” and described him as “a master of tact and discretion, able to weather the worst embarrassment his employer can visit on him”.
After he falsely told a commission investigating leaks to Andrew Morton for his explosive biography of Diana that the princess had not been involved – having been told “certainly not” by her – he offered his resignation to the Queen, who refused it.
Lord Robert Fellowes, the uncle of the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Sussex, has died at the age of 82 https://t.co/yedODIctU7
— Telegraph Royal Family (@TelegraphRoyals) July 31, 2024
Lord Fellowes was the son of Scots Guards Major Sir William Fellowes and Jane Charlotte Ferguson, daughter of Brigadier-General Algernon Francis Holford Ferguson, who was also great-grandfather of Sarah, Duchess of York.
After his time in the royal household, he served as a crossbench life peer, Secretary and Registrar of the Order of Merit from 2003 to 2022, an Extra Equerry to the Queen, Privy Councillor and chairman of the Prison Reform Trust. He also worked as chairman of Barclays Private Bank.
He became known to a new generation after being portrayed in TV series The Crownby the actor Andrew Havill.
