The Master of the Household is the operational head (see Chief operating officer) of the "below stairs" elements of the Royal Households of the United Kingdom. The role has charge of the domestic staff, from the Royal Kitchens, the pages and footmen, to the porters, housekeeper and their staff. The appointment has its origin in the household reforms of 1539-40; it is under the (now purely nominal) supervision of the Lord Steward.
Since 2004 the Office of the Prince of Wales has included a Master of the Household.
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History
Historically, the Master of the Household was a member of the Lord Steward's Department, and sat on the Board of Green Cloth. Among other duties, he presided at the daily dinners of the suite in waiting on the sovereign. The office is not named in the Black Book of Edward IV or in the Statutes of Henry VIII but is entered as Master of the Household and one of the clerks of the Green Cloth in the Household Book of Queen Elizabeth.
Initially there were four Masters of the Household, and they were working officers; but by the late 17th century there was a single Master and the post had become a sinecure. In 1782, when a number of household sinecures were abolished, the Master of the Household was given renewed responsibility for the management of the Lord Steward's Department; and under further reforms overseen by Prince Albert he was given charge of the entire domestic establishment.
In the 1920s, as part of a reconfiguration of the King's Household, the Lord Steward's Department was renamed the Master of the Household's Department. The Master of the Household chaired the Board of Green Cloth up until the time of its abolition in the early 21st century.
List of Masters of the Household
Richard Browne 1603–1604
Sir Robert Vernon bef. 1608 – c.1625
Charles Glemham c. 1625 – 1625
Roger Palmer 1626–1632
In abeyance 1632–1645
George Lisle c. 1645 – 1648
In abeyance? 1648–1660
Sir Herbert Price, 1st Baronet 1660–1665 and 1666–1678
Honourable Henry Bulkeley 1678–1688
Sir Thomas Felton, 4th Baronet 1689–1708
Edmund Dunch 1708–1712
Sir William Pole, 4th Baronet 1712–1714
Edmund Dunch 1714–1719
Sir Conyers Darcy 1720–1730
Sir George Treby 1730–1741
Sir John Harris 1741–1767
Henry Thynne 1768–1771
Sir Francis Henry Drake, 5th Baronet 1771–1794
Sir Henry Strachey, 1st Baronet 1794–1810
Sir William Kenrick 1810–1812
Samuel Hulse 1812–1827
Sir Frederick Beilby Watson 1827–1838
List of Deputy Masters of the Household
Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Charles Arthur Andrew Frederick 1901–1907
Harry Lloyd-Verney, 1907–1911
Sir Derek Keppel 1911–1912
Captain Lord Arthur Hamilton 1913–1914
Sir Harry Stonor} 1918–1921
Captain Lord Claud Nigel Hamilton 1922–1924
Brigadier-General Sir Smith Child, 2nd Baronet 1929–1936
Lieutenant-Colonel Ririd Myddelton, 1937–1939
Group Captain Peter Townsend, 1950–52
Major Sir Mark Milbank, 4th Baronet, 1952–1954
Lieutenant-Colonel Patrick Terence William Span Plunket, 7th Baron Plunket 1954–1975
Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Blair Stewart-Wilson 1976–1994
Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Guy Acland, 1994–1999
Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Anthony Charles Richards, 1999–2023