They were childhood playmates and firm friends throughout the longest reign in British history.
In Elizabeth II’s darkest moments – during her ‘annus horribilis’ of 1992 and after Diana’s death – the Earl of Airlie helped the Queen and her family through the storm.
His smart reforms left the monarchy in a much better shape to meet the challenges of the 21st century. Born less than a month after the Queen, she was often said to refer to him as “my twin brother.”
The 13th Earl of Airlie, the last witness to George VI’s coronation in 1937, was perhaps the most senior guest at Charles III’s coronation at Westminster Abbey last month.
Nine months ago he and his wife, Ginny, a very popular lady-in-waiting, were among a select group invited to the late Queen’s state funeral at the Abbey and also to her service at St George’s Chapel Windsor.
In Elizabeth II’s darkest moments – during her ‘annus horribilis’ of 1992 and after Diana’s death – David Airlie helped the Queen and her family through the storm
However, it was David Airlie’s thirteen years as Lord Chamberlain – de facto non-executive chairman – of the Royal Household that earned him his place in the history books as one of the great Elizabethans.
As he was always fond of reminding both the Royal Family and their staff, “It’s never as bad as you think it is, nor as good as you’d like it to be.”
He is the proudest Scot and grew up in Cortachy Castle in Angus, near the Queen Mother’s ancestral home. Young Lord Ogilvy (his courtesy title) went through Eton and the Scots Guards, served in the Malayan Emergency, before embarking on a City career.
He succeeded his father in the earldom in 1968. Smart, charming and diplomatic, he rose to chairmanship of Schroders in 1977. By then Ginny had become a lady-in-waiting to the Queen and the couple had six children.
In the mid-1980s, when everything seemed sunny in the royal garden with weddings, babies and glowing coverage, the Queen was alert to impending financial problems. Georgia’s age-old financing model for the head of state, the Civil List, did not account for inflation.
Whenever the budget needed to be increased, the Queen was attacked for ‘a pay rise’. Margaret Thatcher’s government cracked down on all forms of wasteful spending and the royal family was a target.
The monarch decided it was time for a change and asked David Airlie to shake up an institution that still had a Victorian mindset.
David Airlie (left) is seen with his brother Angus, Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret and Anne Glenconner, the late Queen’s maid of honor at her coronation in 1953
David Airlie (seen here with Princess Margaret in 1948) was a key figure in the royal household, regularly staying at Sandringham and Balmoral to take family photographs
Virginia, the Earl’s wife, seen here together, was one of the late Queen’s ladies-in-waiting
David Airlie and his wife Virginia beam as they arrive for their 1952 wedding rehearsal
David Airlie is seen with his wife Virginia on their wedding day at St Margaret’s Church in Westminster in 1952
Prince Charles is seen with Lord Airlie at RAF Northolt in 1997 after the arrival of Princess Diana’s body following her death in a car accident
The Queen and Prince Philip with Lord Airlie at a garden party at Buckingham Palace
Lord Airlie stands by King Charles as he presides over an investiture as the Prince of Wales in 1986
“He took it upon himself to assemble the heads of house and read out the Riot Act,” a later Lord Chamberlain, Earl Peel, told me.
He said, ‘This is unacceptable. We do not work on well-controlled budgets. I want to see change.’ And that hasn’t half rattled a couple of cages, I can tell you.’
Having obtained the Queen’s consent, Lord Airlie commissioned management consultant Michael Peat to undertake and carry out the most extensive modernization program since the Prince Albert era.
The result was a radically different agreement with the Civil List, which was established for ten years from 1990. His reforms had proved so effective that when the agreement came up for renewal in 2000, the amount remained the same for another ten years.
After 20 years without a budget increase, it was replaced by the current system, the Sovereign Grant. There is a certain irony that this year’s numbers should be announced on the same day as Lord Airlie’s death.
After the Windsor Castle fire in 1992, it was he who helped devise the plan to fund repairs by opening Buckingham Palace. Long before the monarchy’s historic tax exemptions became a flashpoint, Lord Airlie had drawn up plans for the Queen to pay income tax.
When Diana, Princess of Wales was murdered in Paris in 1997, Lord Airlie and his team had already drawn up funeral plans by the time Tony Blair’s New Labor machine came on board to take the credit.
The Earl of Airlie is seen during the Order of the Thistle ceremony at St Giles Cathedral, Edinburgh, in 2018
The Earl of Airlie is seen at his desk in 1986 when he was Lord Chamberlain
While writing my book, Queen of Our Times, I spoke at length with Lord Airlie. He explained that the palace had already torn up all existing blueprints and that he had presented a lengthy memo to the queen explaining “the importance of capturing and reflecting the public mood of ‘the people’s princess’.”
At night he walked incognito among the crowd. “What was sinister was the total silence,” he said.
‘When I went back to my office at Buckingham Palace, I said to myself, ‘Watch it.’ And we did.’
Just two months ago I organized a luncheon for the bridesmaids and pages who had taken part in the 1953 coronation. All were delighted when David Airlie and Ginny stopped by to regale us with stories about the 1937 event (he was a page for his father, he remembered, and dealt a mighty blow when he lost his sword).
David Airlie was always humble about his part in the modern royal story. “The most important thing is that it is in good condition,” he said of the monarchy. ‘It is real.’ It must be said, not least because of him.