Colonial Despatches

Phipps was treasurer and private secretary to Prince Albert, as well as Keeper of the Queen’s Privy Purse. Following Prince Albert’s death, Phipps, in conjunction with Charles Grey, acted as an unofficial private secretary to Queen Victoria.1 In the minutes of this despatch, Blackwood requests that a copy of the New Westminster Municipal Council’s condolences to Queen Victoria be sent to Phipps.2 Similarly, in this document, Douglas forwards condolences from the Legislative Assembly of Vancouver Island, of which a copy is sent to Phipps.3

Phipps was born 27 December 1801, to Henry Phipps, the first Earl of Mulgrave, and Martha Sophia Maling. Phipps served in the Scots Fusilier Guards as an ensign, lieutenant, and lieutenant colonel before retiring in 1851.4 During that time he also served as private secretary to his brother, Constantine Henry Phipps, the first marquess of Normanby and the governor of Jamaica in 1832.5 Phipps’s career in the royal household as private secretary, treasurer, cofferer, and member of the Privy Council afforded him the political confidences of both Prince Albert and Queen Victoria. His daughter, Harriet Lepel Phipps, also held an extremely confidential position as the queen’s maid-of-honour and bedchamber woman.6 Phipps was honoured with Companion of the Order of the Bath in 1853 and Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in 1858.7 On 24 February 1866, Phipps died of bronchitis and was buried at St. George’s Chapel in Windsor on 2 March.8

• 1. K.D. Reynolds, Phipps, Sir Charles Beaumont, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
• 2. Douglas to Newcastle, 13 March 1862, 5415, CO 60/13, p.132
• 3. Douglas to Newcastle, 4 April 1862, 5575, CO 305/19, p.130
• 4. Reynolds, Phipps, Sir Charles Beaumont.
• 5. Ibid.
• 6. Ibid.
• 7. Ibid.
• 8. Ibid.