LORD STAMFORDHAM.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LI, Issue 111, 11 April 1931, Page 11

LORD STAMFORDHAM.

MAN BEHIND THE THRONE. Arthur John Bigge, first Baron Stamfordham, who died last week,_ aged 81 years, succeeded Viscount lvnollys as Chief Private Secretray to the King in 1910. He owed his success at Court originally to the Empress Eugenie. When he was quite a young man in the Sappers, he became a personal friend of the Prince Imperial, and in that way attracted the attention of the Empress, who, being much pleased by liis bearing and discretion, spoke of him in terms of the highest recommendation to Queen Victoria and Princess Beatrice. Added to this, he distinguished himself with Sir Evelyn Wood in the Zulu War of 1879 When, therefore, a young man of discretion and gallantry and approved horsemanship was required at Court to assist the late Sir Henry Ponsonby and escort the Queen in her drives, Arthur Bigge was summoned to Windsor Castle, and in time stepped into Sir Henry’s place. ,

Lord Stamfordham, who was raised to the peerage in 1911, was the son of Rev. J. F. Bigge, vicar of Stamfordliam, near Newcastle-on-Tyne, and was born in June, 1849. He obtained a commission in the Royal Artillery in 1869. It was in 1880 that he became assistant private secretary to Queen Victoria, and after holding other Court posts he was made her private secretary and knighted in 1895. He at on'ee set to work to sweep away much of the antiquated routine of the Court and introduced modern businesslike methods. After Queen Victoria’s death in January, 1901, the Prince of Wales (later

King George) appointed him his secretary, and he remained in that jiost after the Prince came to the Throne on the death of Edward VII. in May, 1910.

Lord Stamfordham was a man of sound judgment and had an intimate knowledge of State affairs. In his relations with the King he is reputed to have been as much a counsellor as a secretary. He was methodical and painstaking, and his letters were models of language and style. The King’s illness early in 1929 added much to his heavy and responsible duties, but in spite of his advanced age he met all demands made upon him readily. Any spare time he devoted to golf. Hence his wonderful preservation of vigorous health in his old age. He lost his only son in the war in 1915 but he had also two daughters. Lady Stamfordham, who was a daughter of Rev. W. F. Neville, vicar of Butleigli, died in 1922. Among his foreign decorations were those of Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour and the Grand Cross of the Danish Order of the Dannebrog.

In an appreciation of Lord Stamfordham on the occasion of his 80th birthday a London newspaper said- “If ever the real story of this last 50 years comes to be written the name of Lord Stamfordham will be found large in it. You would read how he had once to tell Lord Curzon that he could not be Prime Minister; how he sat up for nights on end in the crisis of the King’s illness, torn with anxiety for his greatest friend; how he conferred, year after year, with all the statesmen of his time, from Gladstone to Ramsay MacDonald; how he moved in the midst of political crises and the storms of war. You would read, too, how he has regularly offered to resign in theso last few years, and how the King has begged him to stay. But that story will never be written. Lord Stamfordham, the man behind the Throne, prefers to stay from the limelight.”