Lord Harewood: Opera-loving cousin of the Queen dies aged 88 | Mail Online
Lord Harewood, a first cousin of the Queen, has aged 88.
George Lascelles, the seventh Earl of Harewood, died peacefully yesterday morning at the family’s Harewood House, near Leeds.
The Earl of Harewood - Telegraph
The Earl of Harewood , who died yesterday aged 88, was a first cousin of the Queen and in later years, after growing a beard, bore more than a passing resemblance to his grandfather King George V; but he did not like to be defined by his royal forebears and his family connections were of no use whatever to him in his chosen career in the music world.
King George V described the birth of his first grandson as a “great occasion in our family life”. The Salvation Army played Gentle Jesus Meek and Mild outside Chesterfield House and revellers at the Chelsea Arts Ball broke into cheers when the announcement was made over a megaphone. As the King had restricted the style of Prince and Princess by decree in 1917, his grandson was styled Master Lascelles. At his christening, held at his parents’ home, Goldsborough Hall in the North Riding of Yorkshire, his godparents included King George and Queen Mary and Princess Alexandra.
He was educated at Ludgrove preparatory school, then in Middlesex, and at Eton, where he greatly enjoyed playing cricket and football. As a boy he was a page to Queen Mary and performed a minor role in various Royal and State occasions, attending the Queen at the 1937 Garter Ceremony and serving as a page at the Coronation of his uncle, King George VI, the same year.
After the war he became — briefly — ADC to the Earl of Athlone, Governor-General of Canada, then went up to King’s College, Cambridge, to read English. He recalled that on one occasion in 1947, when George VI was abroad, he had been hauled from his studies and appointed Counsellor of State, empowered to transact formal business on the monarch’s behalf: “I used to whizz down from Cambridge and the Duke of Gloucester and I constantly had to receive ambassadors and did lots of curious things. Rather jolly.”
In 1949 he married Marion Stein, the daughter of Erwin Stein, an Austrian Jew who had fled to England in 1938. The King and Queen came down especially from Balmoral to join other members of the Royal Family at the ceremony in St Mark’s, North Audley Street. The reception at St James’s Palace was attended by Queen Mary, who arrived with the young Duke of Kent and Princess Alexandra. The marriage produced three sons, but before long it began to run into trouble. In 1964, Harewood fathered a son out of wedlock with Patricia Tuckwell, a young Australian violinist. At first, Marion Harewood was reluctant to agree to a divorce, but eventually she did so and, in 1967, having obtained the Queen’s permission, Lord Harewood married Patricia Tuckwell.
Though his second marriage was to give him great happiness, Harewood was not welcome at court for some years after his divorce, attending neither the Duke of Windsor’s funeral nor Princess Anne’s wedding. Relations seemed to have thawed a little by 1974, when he was allowed to attend the funeral of the Duke of Gloucester, and the Queen met the new Countess of Harewood publicly during her Silver Jubilee celebrations in 1977. As recently as last month he attended the service to mark the Duke of Edinburgh’s 90th birthday at St George’s Chapel in Windsor.
The Earl of Harewood obituary | Music | The Guardian
Grandson of George V whose work with English National Opera helped transform British attitudes
George Lascelles, the seventh Earl of Harewood, who has died aged 88, was unusual for a member of the royal family in deserving a substantial obituary on account of what he did rather than who he was. His overriding concern was to help transform British people's attitude to opera, most notably through his work as managing director of Sadler's Wells Opera (1972-85), via its change of name in 1974 to English National Opera (ENO) and then as chairman (1986-95). The company, built up by Lilian Baylis during the 1930s, had moved from the Sadler's Wells theatre in north Londo
n to the larger and more central London Coliseum in 1968, and the new title he obtained for it further enhanced its status. His previous experience had been at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, first as a member of the board (1951-53, and again 1969-72), then as casting manager on the staff (1953-60).
Harewood's sincere commitment to music and opera, and his acquaintance with many other singers, musicians and composers, made a real difference. He was, after all, one of the few royals who genuinely valued British music and knew a great deal about it. As Queen Elizabeth herself once put it to the general director, Peter Jonas, in the royal retiring room at the London Coliseum, on a rare royal visit to the ENO when Harewood was chairman of the company, but equally rarely when her cousin was unavailable to greet her, "Funny thing about George. You know, in most respects he's perfectly normal."
The two Lascelles boys took part in royal ceremonial such as their grandfather's funeral procession in 1936 and the proclamation of King George VI after the abdication of his elder brother, Edward VIII. George was at Eton college when he was called upon to be a page at the subsequent coronation.
At the age of 19, he was commissioned as a Grenadier Guards officer, and was severely wounded and then captured in the Italian campaign. He passed through a series of Italian hospitals and German PoW camps, ending up for a time in Colditz because of his "prominent relations".
.
