Social Victorians/People/Ponsonby

Also Known As

• Family name: Ponsonby
• Baron Sysonby
  • Fritz (Frederick Edward Grey) Ponsonby, 1st Baron Sysonby ()

Overview

• David Cannadine says,

  The most successful patrician courtiers established an abiding dynastic connection, so that generation after generation, their families enjoyed royal favour and preferment. From the late nineteenth century until the Second World War, the Ponsonbys were the pre-eminent courtly dynasty. They were very aristocratic but not very rich, being a cadet branch of he Earls of Bessborough. Sir Henry Ponsonby, grandson of the third earl, became the Queen's private secretary in 1870, largely because his predecessor, General Grey, was his wife's uncle. He held the position until his death in 1895, by which time the Queen had already appointed his second son, Frederick, as an Equerry.

• Cannadine says, "Sir Henry Ponsonby effectively created the post of Private Secretary to the Sovereign in its modern guise."

Organizations

Fritz (Frederick Edward Grey) Ponsonby

Queen Victoria's Household

• Equerry-in-Ordinary (1894–1901)
• Assistant Keeper of the Privy Purse and Assistant Private Secretary to Queen Victoria (1897–1901)

King Edward VII's Household

• Assistant Keeper of the Privy Purse and Assistant Private Secretary to King Edward VII (1901–1910)

King George V's Household

• Assistant Keeper of the Privy Purse and Assistant Private Secretary to King George V (1910–1914)
• Keeper of the Privy Purse to King George V (1914–1935)
• Lieutenant Governor of Windsor Castle (1928–1935)

Timeline

1870 April 8, Henry Frederick Ponsonby was appointed Queen Victoria's Private Secretary and Keeper of the Privy Purse.

Demographics

• Nationality: British

Family

• Hon. Sir Frederick Cavendish Ponsonby (6 July 1783 – 11 January 1837)
• Lady Emily Charlotte Bathurst ( – 1877)
  1. Sir Henry Frederick Ponsonby (10 December 1825 – 21 November 1895)
  2. Lieutenant Colonel Arthur Edward Valette (3 December 1827 – 16 June 1868)
  3. Georgina Melita Maria Ponsonby (16 February 1829 – 18 February 1895)
  4. Harriet Julia Frances Ponsonby (27 October 1830 – 30 June 1906)
  5. Selina Barbara Wilhelmina Ponsonby (20 January 1835 – 22 July 1919)
  6. Frederick John Ponsonby (21 March 1837 – 3 February 1894)

• Sir Henry Frederick Ponsonby (10 December 1825 – 21 November 1895)
• Hon. Mary Elizabeth Bulteel (21 Sep 1832 – 1916)
  1. Alberta Victoria Ponsonby (6 May 1862 – 15 October 1945)
  2. Cecil William Davidge Ponsonby (28 March 1863 – 16 January 1936)
  3. Magdalen Ponsonby (24 June 1864 – 1 July 1934)
  4. John Ponsonby (25 March 1866 – 26 March 1952)
  5. Frederick Edward Grey Ponsonby (16 September 1867 – 20 October 1935)
  6. Arthur Augustus William Harry Ponsonby (16 February 1871 – 24 March 1946)

• Fritz (Frederick Edward Grey) Ponsonby (16 September 1867 – 20 October 1935)

Relations

• Mr. and Mrs. Edward Ponsonby
• Mr. Fritz Ponsonby
• Mr. John Ponsonby
• Miss M. Ponsonby
• Miss Melita and Miss Julia Ponsonby
• Ponsonby Fane
• Hon. Sir Frederick Cavendish Ponsonby's sister was Lady Caroline Lamb, who married Viscount Melbourne, Prime Minister early in Queen Victoria's reign.

Notes and Questions

Frederick Ponsonby's Recollections of Three Reigns

Amateur theatricals among the royals and household:

Once or twice whole plays came down [to Windsor, Osborne, or Balmoral, though he probably means Windsor? Someone says Osborne somewhere, though?], but this was expensive, and amateur actors in the Household were usually asked to produce something. There were two outstanding actors, Arthur Collins [fn 1 Lieutenant-Colonel Arthur Collins, Gentleman Usher to Queen Victoria.] and Alec Yorke, and these two alternately drilled the members of the Household and produced plays. [50/51]

The first time I acted was in She Stoops to Conquer, stage-managed by Arthur Collins, who did the part of the Innkeeper. This was before I joined the Household [in 1894]. My brother Arthur [fn 1 Later 1^st Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede. For many years Socialist M.P. for Brightside Division of Sheffield.] was Tony Lumpkin, while Arthur Bigge and I did the two lovers, and Princess Louise and Princess Beatrice the two principal ladies’ parts. The Queen came to the rehearsals, which frightened us all very much, and when she saw me chucking Princess Louise under the chin (I was supposed to mistake her for the barmaid) she thought this was overdone. I received a message that I had better not indulge in any chucking under the chin. The next day I went through my part but never came within touching distance of Princess Louise, and again received a message to say I was overdoing it the other way. I consulted Princess Louise herself, who roared with laughter at my dilemma, and we finally hit off a happy medium.

Both Princess Louise and Princess Beatrice were quite good in their parts, but very sketchy with the words. I therefore learnt their parts as well as my own so that I could either say their words or prompt them. Everyone else did the same, but there was one small bit when they were both on together and of course they stuck, each one thinking it was the other’s fault. After an awkward pause the servants gave a round of applause, which I thought was a very intelligent way of helping them, but although the prompter was able to start them again, they could not get going and the stage carpenter solved the problem by letting the curtain down.

Another time I acted in A Scrap of Paper at Balmoral, this time under Alec Yorke as stage manager. The Queen thought the performances so good that she invited Hare and his company, who were playing at Aberdeen, to come and witness the performance. They must have been amused as they all knew the play well, but of course they were loud in their praises.

There were also tableaux in which all the members of the Royal Family took part. They must have been very wearying for the audience, who had to sit for two and a half hours with very long intervals between the tableaux. The only person who thoroughly enjoyed them was Clarkson, the wig-maker from London. As he hob-nobbed with the Royal Family and as he supplied all the dresses, he probably made a very good thing out of it.

On the transition between Victoria’s and Edward’s administrations and households:

The King made a clean sweep of the Grooms-in-Waiting and decided to appoint in future soldiers and sailors of distinction to be Gentlemen Ushers, a position similar to that of Chamberlains abroad. In Queen Victoria’s reign these appointments were held by any type of man and there was a certain amount of nepotism. The King’s plans were not at first understood and he was hurt at the refusal of several old friends to serve as Ushers. Later many soldiers and sailors accepted but it is doubtful whether they were really suited for managing large crowds of society people at Buckingham Palace. [101/102]

When the King and Queen went to London, Buckingham Palace was undergoing great changes and they therefore had to remain at Marlborough House, which had been the King’s London home since his marriage.

Having been appointed Assistant Private Secretary I imagined that I should have a great deal of work to do, but when I came the next morning at 10 a.m. I was told by Francis Knollys that it was quite unnecessary for me to stay as he wanted no help. This surprised me considerably as I knew there must be a lot of work to be done, but as there is nothing more tiresome than a person hanging about idle when everyone else is busy, I made myself scarce. Even the Equerry had so much to do that he had no time to speak to me.

I learnt later that while there was no friction of any sort between the new and the old Household, Marlborough House was firmly convinced that Buckingham Palace was hopelessly out of date and that none of Queen Victoria’s Household were any good. There was a great deal of truth in this, but while the other Departments were certainly out of date, the Private Secretary’s office under Sir Arthur Bigge was not only up to date, but far better managed than the equivalent office in the Prince of Wales’ Household. Bigge had organized the office on business lines, and since I had joined the Household typewriting and shorthand had been introduced, and the filing of papers brought up to date.

The new appointment of myself as an Assistant Private Secretary was not altogether popular. In the first place Francis Knollys considered it quite unnecessary, and in the second place a member of Queen Victoria’s old-fashioned Household had been nominated, which probably meant incompetence. There were clerks at Buckingham Palace, but they were probably hopeless, therefore quite obviously the Marlborough House staff had better carry on as before, and the Assistant Private Secretary, who was a fifth wheel to a coach, could join the ceremonial Household.

More on the households:

The Lord Chamberlain’s office under Sir Arthur Ellis, which was concerned with ceremonial issues, was also reorganized and all sorts of innovations and improvements were introduced: the most effective of these was the ‘Drawing-rooms’, as they were then called, being held in the evening instead of the afternoon. They were in future called ‘Courts’ and were held in the ballroom instead of the throne-room. Ellis, who had visited every Court in Europe with King Edward when he was Prince of Wales, had an unrivalled knowledge of the way things were done abroad and was able to adapt the best features of the Continental receptions. The King went into every detail and between them they stage-managed perfectly a new piece of pageantry.

When I attended a ‘Court’ I was always struck by the incongruous music the band played, and determined to do what I could to have this remedied. The majority of the Household, being quite unmusical, clamoured for popular airs, and Sir Walter Parratt, the Master of the Music, who cared only for classical music and looked down on any other sort of music, complied with the demand. I argued that these popular airs robbed the ceremony of all dignity. A presentation at Court was often a great event in a lady’s life, but if she went past the King and Queen to the tune of ‘His nose was redder than it was’, the whole impression was spoilt. I maintained that minuets and old-fashioned airs, operatic music with a ‘mysterious’ touch, were what was wanted. I wrote to Sir Walter Parratt, who welcomed my opposition, to counter the pressure for popular airs; not that he carried out my proposals, but he played music that he liked.

On the Drawing-Rooms:

King Edward liked French and Viennese light operas, whereas Queen Alexandra preferred grand opera, particularly Wagner. One morning the bandmaster received a message from the King to play Offenbach, and one from the Queen to play Wagner. Finding himself unable to comply with both, he thought he would hit upon the happy medium and selected Gilbert and Sullivan operas, and as always with people who compromise, he got into trouble with both the King and the Queen.

Bibliography

• Ponsonby, Arthur [Arthur Augustus William Harry]. Henry Ponsonby, Queen Victoria's Private Secretary: His Life from His Letters. London: Macmillan, 1943.
• Ponsonby, Frederick, Sir, first Lord Sysonby. Recollections of Three Reigns. Introd. and notes, Colin Welch. London, Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1951.