Michael Parker (courtier)

Lieutenant-Commander John Michael Avison Parker, CVO, AM (23 June 1920 – 29 December 2001) was an Australian who served as an officer of the Royal Navy (RN), and as Private Secretary to Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, between 1947 and 1957.

Michael Parker

CVO AM
Private Secretary to The Duke of Edinburgh
In office
1947–1957
Succeeded byJames Orr
Personal details
Born23 June 1920
Melbourne, Australia
Died29 December 2001(2001-12-29) (aged 81)
NationalityAustralian
Spouse(s)
Eileen Allan
​
(
m. 1943; div. 1958)

Carol Thompson (m. 1962; div.)
Jean Ramsay
(
m. 1976)
ChildrenFour
EducationXavier College
Military service
AllegianceUnited Kingdom
Branch/serviceRoyal Australian Navy
Royal Navy
Years of service1938–1947
RankLieutenant-Commander
Unit
Battles/warsSecond World War

Early life and education

Parker was born in Melbourne on 23 June 1920.[1] The son of Captain C. A. Parker, he was educated at Xavier College, Melbourne.[1]

Career

Parker served in the Royal Australian Navy, and then the Royal Navy, between 1938 and 1947, reaching the rank of lieutenant-commander. He fought at the Battle of Narvik, and later was First Lieutenant of HMS Lauderdale in 1942, then of HMS Wessex in the 27th Destroyer Flotilla of the British Pacific Fleet.[2]

Parker first met the then Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark in 1942, when Philip was assigned to the destroyer HMS Wallace as a sub-lieutenant.[1] They became close friends. In 1947, when Philip was created Duke of Edinburgh in the Peerage of the United Kingdom, Parker joined the Household of the Duke of Edinburgh as Private Secretary, initially on a part-time basis. He also became Equerry to the Duke and the Duchess of Edinburgh (who later became, in 1952, The Queen). The Duke brought Parker into the "Thursday Club", an exclusive weekly luncheon group.[3]

In 1952, Parker was in Kenya with the royal couple and broke the news to them of King George VI's death.[1][2] Parker became full-time Private Secretary to the Duke.[1] Parker was created Member of the Royal Victorian Order (MVO) in 1953, and Commander (CVO) in 1957.[1] He accompanied the Duke on his 1956 five month world tour aboard HMY Britannia.[4]

Parker's divorce in 1958, reported on extensively in the media, forced him to resign as the Duke's Private Secretary. He was succeeded in that role by James Orr.[5] Parker remained in contact with the Duke until the end of his life.[1][4] Parker worked for aircraft builder Lockheed Corporation and advertising agency Leo Burnett Worldwide. He returned to live in Australia in the late 1960s. He became chairman of Australian Dredging and General Services, and was a director of Sperry Australia.[1]

In the 1996 Australia Day Honours, he was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia for "service to education, particularly through the Plain English Speaking Award Scheme, and to the community".[6]

Personal life

Parker married Eileen Allan in 1943, with whom he had a son and a daughter. The marriage was dissolved in 1958. Eileen wrote a 1982 book called Step Aside for Royalty in which she claimed her husband and the Duke of Edinburgh used the pseudonyms Murgatroyd and Winterbottom to "gallivant out of the palace".[7][8] Parker denied the claim.[7]

In 1962 Parker married Carol Thompson, with whom he had another daughter and son; the marriage was dissolved.[2] In 1976, he married Jean Ramsay, who died in 2001.[1][2]

Parker died in Melbourne, Australia, in December 2001.[2]

Parker is portrayed by Daniel Ings in the Netflix series The Crown.[4]

gollark: I mean, I guess it depends on how you define with "you".
gollark: Again, you don't really *choose* beliefs.
gollark: Basically, they have some weird thing going on where they kind of sort of believe it because they kind of sort of believe they'll go to hell otherwise, I think.
gollark: You don't exactly control your beliefs, you know.
gollark: I dislike the sudden proliferation of 🥴.

References
  1. "Commander Michael Parker". The Telegraph. 2 January 2002. Retrieved 9 December 2017.
  2. "Commander Michael Parker". Independent. 4 January 2002. Retrieved 9 December 2017.
  3. The Crown: The Scandal That Rocked Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip’s Marriage Vanity Fair, December, 2017.
  4. Bley Griffiths, Eleanor (8 December 2017). "The Crown: Who was Prince Philip's right hand man Mike Parker?". Radio Times. Retrieved 9 December 2017.
  5. Heald, Tim. "James Orr: Private Secretary to Prince Philip". The Independent (UK). Archived from the original on 28 May 2011. Retrieved 12 December 2017.CS1 maint: BOT: original-url status unknown (link)
  6. "Commander Michael Avison Parker, CVO, RN (Ret'd)". honours.pmc.gov.au. Retrieved 25 August 2019.
  7. Lazatin, Hannah (8 December 2017). "Sex and Drugs Put a Strain on the British Monarchy in the 1950s". Town and Country. Archived from the original on 9 December 2017. Retrieved 9 December 2017.
  8. Davies, Nicholas (2013). Elizabeth II: Behind Palace Doors. Random House.
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