SIR ARTHUR BIGGE (60-67)
Sir Arthur Bigge (at Rossall 1860-67), First Baron Stamfordham, was a British soldier and courtier. He was Private Secretary to Queen Victoria during the last few years of her reign, and to George V during most of his reign. He was the maternal grandfather of Lord Adeane, Private Secretary to Elizabeth II from 1953 to 1972.
On leaving Rossall, he entered the Royal Military Academy and was commissioned into the Royal Artillery in 1869. He was appointed Private Secretary to Queen Victoria in 1895 and served until her death in January 1901. A couple of months later he was appointed Private Secretary to her grandson, the Duke of Cornwall and York (appointed Prince of Wales later the same year). He continued to serve as such on the Prince´s accession to the throne as King George V in 1910. As Private Secretary to the sovereign he was sworn of the Privy Council in 1910 and elevated to the peerage as Baron Stamfordham in 1911.
Bigge exerted considerable influence over King George,including advising the King to change the family name from Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to Windsor. Lord Stamfordham died, still in office, at St James’s Palace on 31 March 1931, aged 81,
He featured in a recent BBC2 Documentary’, ‘King George and Queen Mary; The Royals Who Rescued the Monarchy’, and is mentioned in the following link:
