User:Ruby2010/Harriet Phipps

The Hon. Harriet Lepel Phipps, VA (22 January 1841 – 7 March 1922) was an English courtier who, for much of her life, served as a confidential attendant of Queen Victoria. This began in 1862, when at the age of twenty-one, Phipps became a maid of honour. She held this position until 1889, when she served as a woman of the bedchamber until Victoria's death in 1901. Her duties included serving as an intermediary between the Queen and others, and organising the time periods in which the other ladies-in-waiting spent in service. Near the end of Victoria's life, Phipps also helped manage the aging Queen's correspondence.

Family and early life
Harriet Lepel Phipps was born on 22 January 1841. She was the younger daughter of Sir Charles Beaumont Phipps, a courtier and confidant of Queen Victoria who served as Keeper of the Privy Purse from 1849 to 1866. Sir Charles was a brother of Constantine Phipps, 1st Marquess of Normanby. Her mother was Margaret Anne Bathurst.

The biographer Greg King describes Harriet Phipps as being "trim, with golden hair", who wore many necklaces and bracelets that rattled when she moved.

Royal service
After the death of Prince Albert in 1861, the widowed Queen went into a long seclusion in which only a small group were permitted access; Victoria relied on ladies of the household such as Harriet Phipps to act as intermediaries to the outside world.

Phipps never married, and her life revolved around royal service. In March 1862, at the age of twenty-one, she was appointed maid of honour in Ordinary to the widowed Queen, earning the courtesy rank of a baron's daughter. From 1889 until Victoria's death in 1901, she served as a Woman of the Bedchamber. She held a permanent position in the royal household, with only three weeks of holiday leave. Part of her duties involved organising the time periods in which the other ladies-in-waiting spent in service to the Queen. This gave her significant influence in the royal household, as ladies negotiated and bargained over their assignments.

The historian K. D. Reynolds states that Phipps was "one of Victoria's longest-serving confidential attendants". Phipps gained a reputation for being the Queen's confidante, and by the end of the Queen's life was considered her closest companion, excluding Victoria's daughters. Phipps and another royal servant, Horatia Stopford, acted as unofficial secretaries during the Queen's last twenty years. While it is assumed that Phipps had access to many secrets, she was loyal to Victoria and never divulged them. At Phipps' request, upon her death in 1922 all of her letters were destroyed.

Phipps was politically unaffiliated, and never allied herself to any particular faction in court. Marie Mallet, a fellow lady of the bedchamber, found Phipps, as a messenger of instructions from Victoria, somewhat awe-inspiring, but "gay and excellent company and always warm-hearted". As Victoria's eyesight failed in her later years, she increasingly relied on Phipps, her daughters Princess Beatrice and Princess Helena, and the rotating cycle of other ladies who attended her. These women read the Queen's letters, and under dictation, maintained her correspondence.

In 1887, Victoria's household was enlarged with the addition of several Indian servants. This included Abdul Karim, who was known as the Munshi. By 1889 Karim had become her personal Indian servant. He quickly became deeply unpopular with the other royal servants; this culminated in 1897, when Victoria announced her intention to bring Karim on her journey to France. The royal household, especially male servants who also would need to accompany the Queen, erupted in outrage. They tasked Phipps with bringing an ultimatum to the Queen: they would resign unless Karim was removed from the trip. Victoria reacted in fury and refused to comply, sweeping the contents of her desk onto the floor. The household begrudgingly complied, and during the journey, Karim stayed in separate quarters.

She was decorated with the Royal Order of Victoria and Albert, 4th class. After Victoria's death in 1901, Phipps left court.

Legacy
Phipps is the subject of a 1889 portrait by the Irish artist John Lavery, who in the previous year had painted Victoria's official visit to the Glasgow International Exhibition. This work is now in the collection of the Glasgow Museums.

Phipps appears as a supporting character in the 2017 film Victoria & Abdul, where she is portrayed by Fenella Woolgar. In the film, Phipps is depicted as "the prissy head housekeeper" who "purses her lips on demand".