User:Ruby2010/Harriet Phipps
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Harriet Phipps | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 22 January 1841 |
| Died | 7 March 1922 (aged 81) |
| Parent(s) | Sir Charles Beaumont Phipps Margaret Anne Bathurst |
The Hon. Harriet Lepel Phipps, VA (22 January 1841 – 7 March 1922) was an English courtier who, for much of her life, served as a confidential attendant of Queen Victoria. This began in 1862, when at the age of twenty-one, Phipps became a maid of honour. She held this position until 1889, when she served as a woman of the bedchamber until Victoria's death in 1901. Her duties included serving as an intermediary between the Queen and others, and organising the time periods in which the other ladies-in-waiting spent in service. Near the end of Victoria's life, Phipps also helped manage the aging Queen's correspondence.
Family and early life[edit]
Harriet Lepel Phipps was born on 22 January 1841.[citation needed] She was the younger daughter of Sir Charles Beaumont Phipps, a courtier and confidant of Queen Victoria who served as Keeper of the Privy Purse from 1849 to 1866. Sir Charles was a brother of Constantine Phipps, 1st Marquess of Normanby.[1][2] Her mother was Margaret Anne Bathurst.[3]
The biographer Greg King describes Harriet Phipps as being "trim, with golden hair", who wore many necklaces and bracelets that rattled when she moved.[4]
Royal service[edit]
After the death of Prince Albert in 1861, the widowed Queen went into a long seclusion in which only a small group were permitted access; Victoria relied on ladies of the household such as Harriet Phipps to act as intermediaries to the outside world.[5]
Phipps never married, and her life revolved around royal service.[6] In March 1862, at the age of twenty-one,[7] she was appointed maid of honour in Ordinary to the widowed Queen, earning the courtesy rank of a baron's daughter.[8][9] From 1889 until Victoria's death in 1901, she served as a Woman of the Bedchamber.[2] She held a permanent position in the royal household, with only three weeks of holiday leave. Part of her duties involved organising the time periods in which the other ladies-in-waiting spent in service to the Queen. This gave her significant influence in the royal household, as ladies negotiated and bargained over their assignments.[6]
The historian K. D. Reynolds states that Phipps was "one of Victoria's longest-serving confidential attendants".[2] Phipps gained a reputation for being the Queen's confidante,[10] and by the end of the Queen's life was considered her closest companion, excluding Victoria's daughters.[11] Phipps and another royal servant, Horatia Stopford, acted as unofficial secretaries during the Queen's last twenty years.[12] While it is assumed that Phipps had access to many secrets, she was loyal to Victoria and never divulged them. At Phipps' request, upon her death in 1922 all of her letters were destroyed.[2][5]
Phipps was politically unaffiliated, and never allied herself to any particular faction in court.[13] Marie Mallet, a fellow lady of the bedchamber, found Phipps, as a messenger of instructions from Victoria, somewhat awe-inspiring, but "gay and excellent company and always warm-hearted".[14] As Victoria's eyesight failed in her later years, she increasingly relied on Phipps, her daughters Princess Beatrice and Princess Helena, and the rotating cycle of other ladies who attended her. These women read the Queen's letters, and under dictation, maintained her correspondence.[15]
In 1887, Victoria's household was enlarged with the addition of several Indian servants. This included Abdul Karim, who was known as the Munshi. By 1889 Karim had become her personal Indian servant. He quickly became deeply unpopular with the other royal servants; this culminated in 1897, when Victoria announced her intention to bring Karim on her journey to France. The royal household, especially male servants who also would need to accompany the Queen, erupted in outrage. They tasked Phipps with bringing an ultimatum to the Queen: they would resign unless Karim was removed from the trip. Victoria reacted in fury and refused to comply, sweeping the contents of her desk onto the floor.[16][17] The household begrudgingly complied, and during the journey, Karim stayed in separate quarters.[18]
She was decorated with the Royal Order of Victoria and Albert, 4th class.[1] After Victoria's death in 1901, Phipps left court.[19]
Legacy[edit]
Phipps is the subject of a 1889 portrait by the Irish artist John Lavery, who in the previous year had painted Victoria's official visit to the Glasgow International Exhibition.[20] This work is now in the collection of the Glasgow Museums.[21]
Phipps appears as a supporting character in the 2017 film Victoria & Abdul, where she is portrayed by Fenella Woolgar.[22] In the film, Phipps is depicted as "the prissy head housekeeper" who "purses her lips on demand".[23]
References[edit]
- ^ a b Newnes 1895, p. 196.
- ^ a b c d Reynolds 2009.
- ^ Powney & Mitchell 2014, p. 182.
- ^ King 2007, p. 78.
- ^ a b Reynolds 1998, p. 212.
- ^ a b Hubbard 2012, pp. 334–35.
- ^ Hubbard 2012, p. 334.
- ^ "No. 22604". The London Gazette. 4 March 1862. p. 1248.
- ^ Hibbert 2000, p. 468.
- ^ Powney & Mitchell 2014, p. 175.
- ^ Rennell 2000, pp. 65–66.
- ^ Reynolds 1998, p. 207.
- ^ Reynolds 1998, pp. 212, 214.
- ^ Mallet 1968, p. 2.
- ^ Dennison 2007.
- ^ King 2007, pp. 200–03.
- ^ Hibbert 2000, pp. 446–51.
- ^ Hubbard 2012, p. 323.
- ^ Hubbard 2012, p. 363.
- ^ Newfield 2015.
- ^ "Collections navigator: The Honourable Harriet Phipps". Glasgow Museums. Retrieved 26 January 2020.
- ^ "Judi Dench delivers another royal performance in 'Victoria & Abdul'". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. 6 October 2017. Retrieved 5 November 2018.
- ^ Taylor, Ella (21 September 2017). "'Victoria And Abdul': Part Satire, Part Love Story, All Charming". National Public Radio. Retrieved 25 January 2020.
- Works cited
- Dennison, Matthew (2007). The Last Princess: The Devoted Life of Queen Victoria's Youngest Daughter. Head of Zeus Inc. ISBN 978-178954390-2.
- Hibbert, Christopher (2000). Queen Victoria: A Personal History. Basic Books. ISBN 0-465-06761-1.
- Hubbard, Kate (2012). Serving Victoria: Life in the Royal Household. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-226991-1.
- King, Greg (2007). Twilight of Splendor: The Court of Queen Victoria During Her Diamond Jubilee Year. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-0-470-04439-1.
- Mallet, Marie (1968). Life with Queen Victoria: Marie Mallet's Letters from Court 1887–1901. J. Murray. ISBN 978-0719517839.
- Newfield, Fabien (2015). John Lavery: 101 Paintings. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. ISBN 978-1507765340.
- Newnes, George, ed. (1895). "The Ladies of Queen Victoria's Court". The Strand Magazine. Vol. 10. pp. 190–200.
- Powney, Janet; Mitchell, Jeremy (2014). "A Royal Upstairs Downstairs on the Isle of Wight: Queen Victoria's Visit to "The Orchard"" (PDF). Hampshire Studies. 69: 175–82.
- Rennell, Tony (2000). The Last Days of Glory: The Death of Queen Victoria. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-27672-9.
- Reynolds, K. D. (1998). Aristocratic Women and Political Society in Victorian Britain. Clarendon Press. ISBN 0-19-820727-1.
- Reynolds, K.D. (2009). "Phipps, Sir Charles Beaumont (1801–1866), court official". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/22184. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)