Robert Fellowes, Baron Fellowes GCB GCVO QSO PC is a recurring character in Seasons 5 and 6 of the Netflix series, The Crown. He is British courtier and military officer who serves as Private Secretary to Queen Elizabeth II from 1990 to 1999. He is portrayed by Andrew Havill.
Biography[]
Fellowes was born at Sandringham on 11 December 1941, the son of Sir William Albermarle Fellowes (1899–1986), a Major in the Scots Guards and land agent of the Sandringham estate, and his wife Jane Charlotte Ferguson (1912–1986). His paternal family hails from Shotesham, Norfolk, and are a landed gentry family, a junior branch of the barons de Ramsey. His maternal grandfather was Brigadier-General Algernon Francis Holford Ferguson (1867–1943), the great-grandfather of Sarah, Duchess of York.
Fellowes was educated at Eton College and played cricket for Norfolk in the 1959 Minor Counties Championship, making one appearance each against Buckinghamshire and the Nottinghamshire Second XI. Fellowes would go on to serve for a short while as an officer in the Scots Guards in 1960. In 1963, Fellowes would retire from the Army and begin a career as a financier, working for Allen Harvey and Ross Ltd, discount brokers and bankers, from 1964 until 1977, eventually becoming a managing director. In 1974, Fellowes was offered a position in the Royal Household, but declined to work there until he was in a better financial state. Three years later in 1977, Fellowes left the banking industry and joined the Royal Household, working in the Private Secretary's Office.
Fellowes served as Assistant Private Secretary to the Sovereign from 1977 until 1986 and then Deputy Private secretary from 1986 until 1990. In 1990, Fellowes was appointed Private Secretary to the Sovereign and also made a member of the Privy Council, posts he would hold for nine years until his retirement from the Royal Household in 1999, being succeeded by Robin Janvrin. For his service in the Royal Household, Fellowes was created a Life Peer and made Baron Fellowes of Shotesham in the County of Norfolk in the Queen's Birthday Honours List. He sat as a crossbench peer in the House of Lords until his retirement on 10 February 2022. Fellowes would then return to work in the financial sector He was the brother-in-law of Diana, Princess of Wales and maternal first cousin of Ronald Ferguson, the father of Sarah, Duchess of York.
On the Show[]
Season 5[]
TBA
Season 6[]
TBA
Honours[]
Orders of Chivalry[]
- Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order (GCVO)-15 June 1996
- Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath (GCB)-31 December 1997
- Queen's Service Order (QSO)-31 December 1998
Other Appointments[]
- Privy Council (PC)-1990
- Extra Equerry-1997
- Life Peerage-1999
Trivia[]
- According to his obituary in The Times newspaper, one of the first people to have met him after his birth was none other than Her Royal Highness Princess Elizabeth. Years later, at Fellowes's retirement party, Queen Elizabeth II remarked that Robert was the only one of her private secretaries that she'd held in her arms."[1]
Gallery[]
Appearances[]
| Season 5 Appearances | ||||
| Queen Victoria Syndrome | The System | Mou Mou | Annus Horribilis | The Way Ahead |
| Ipatiev House | No Woman's Land | Gunpowder | Couple 31 | Decommissioned |
References[]
- ↑ Actor who played Robert Fellowes in The Crown pays tribute to 'true public servant' who gave 'unfailing duty, loyalty and devotion' as the late Queen's private secretary after his death aged 82 | Daily Mail Online