| The Right Honourable The Lord Wigram GCB GCVO CSI PC |
|
|---|---|
| Private Secretary to the Sovereign | |
| In office 1931–1936 |
|
| Monarch | George V |
| Preceded by | The Lord Stamfordham |
| Succeeded by | Sir Alexander Hardinge |
| Personal details | |
| Nationality | British |
| Alma mater | Royal Military Academy, Woolwich |
Clive Wigram, 1st Baron Wigram GCB, GCVO, CSI, PC (July 5, 1873-September 3, 1960), was a British soldier and court official. He was Private Secretary to the Sovereign from 1931 to 1936.
Wigram was the son of Herbert Wigram. His grandfather Reverend William Pitt Wigram was the ninth and youngest son of Sir Robert Wigram, 1st Baronet, a prominent merchant. He was educated at Winchester College (of which he later became a Fellow), and the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, and served in the Royal Artillery between 1893 and 1897 and in the Indian Army from 1897.
In 1897 Wigram joined the 18th (King George's Own) Bengal Lancers, and served on the Tirah Expedition in the North West Frontier from 1897 to 1898. From 1899 to 1904 he was Aide-de-Camp to the Viceroy of India Lord Curzon, an office he had already filled in 1895 (under the Earl of Elgin) and also served in 1900 with Kitchener's Horse in the Second Boer War, where he was mentioned in despatches.
Between 1905 and 1906 Wigram served as Assistant Chief of Staff to the Prince of Wales in India, and in the following year he was promoted major and was appointed Equerry to the Prince of Wales, an office he held until the Prince became King in 1910. While in India he played first-class cricket for the Europeans club. Wigram then served as Assistant Private Secretary and Equerry to the King from 1910 to 1931. In 1915 he was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel, and later to brevet Colonel. In 1919 he was promoted to Colonel.
In 1931 Wigram was promoted to Private Secretary to the Sovereign and held office until he retired in 1936. He also served as Keeper of the Archives from 1931 to 1945, as an Extra Equerry from 1931 until his death, as a Permanent Lord in Waiting from 1936 to 1960 and was Keeper of the Privy Purse from 1935 to 1945 and Deputy Constable of Windsor Castle from 1936 to 1945. Apart from his careers in the Army and at court he was also a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and of the Zoological Society of London, President of Westminster Hospital and Governor of Wellington College and Haileybury. He was the first president of the Gloucestershire Boy Scouts[1]
Wigram was made a CB 1918, a KCB in 1931 and a GCB in 1933. He also became a LVO in 1903, a CVO in 1915, a KCVO 1928 and GCVO in 1932 and made a CSI in 1911. He was sworn of the Privy Council in 1932 and in 1935 he was raised to the peerage as Baron Wigram, of Clewer in the County of Berkshire. He was further honoured in 1937 when he received the Royal Victorian Chain.
Lord Wigram married Nora Mary, daughter of Sir Neville Francis Fitzgerald Chamberlain, in 1912. She died in 1956. Lord Wigram survived her by four years and died in September 1960, aged 87. He was succeeded in the barony by his eldest son Neville.
| Court offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by The Lord Stamfordham |
Private Secretary to the Sovereign 1931–1936 |
Succeeded by Sir Alexander Hardinge |
| Peerage of the United Kingdom | ||
| Preceded by New Creation |
Baron Wigram 1873–1960 |
Succeeded by George Neville Clive Wigram |