For the record...
Telegraph UK
3 May 2013
Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton, principal private secretary to William, Kate & Harry, to step down in September
The number of courtiers at St James’s Palace is about to be reduced after Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton, the ex-SAS officer who has been a steady presence at William and Harry’s side for the past eight years, told them he has decided to step down. Mr Lowther-Pinkerton, principal private secretary to William, Kate and Harry, will be missed by the Duke and Duchess, to whom he is such a close friend that his son William was a pageboy at their wedding. But remarkably, only one member of the Royal Household works solely for her. Rebecca Deacon, her private secretary, is always by her side when she is out in public.
The truth is that, in common with every other family in the country, the most important members of the Duchess’s “team” are not paid at all. Her family are her greatest source of strength and advice; it just happens that in her case, “family” happens to include such wise counsel as the Queen.
Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton, the royal couple’s principal private secretary, intends to leave his post in September. Mr Lowther-Pinkerton, 52, a former SAS major, is the most senior of their
12 full-time staff and has helped plan everything from the royal wedding to their overseas tours. He is also principal private secretary to Prince Harry. Mr Lowther-Pinkerton was one of three royal aides whose mobile phones were hacked by the News of the World in 2005, triggering the hacking scandal that is yet to run its course. He plans to take up consultancy roles in the private sector, but intends to spend one day a week at St James’s Palace to advise the younger members of staff who will take his place.
His role will be divided between three individual private secretaries:
Miguel Head, 35, for the Duke,
Rebecca Deacon, 30, for the Duchess, and
Edward Lane Fox, 36, for Prince Harry.
A royal source said Mr Lowther-Pinkerton’s departure had been “on the cards for months. It’s a big shift for the Household and is the last part of the restructuring of staff.” Eton-educated Mr Lowther-Pinkerton, who served as equerry to Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother from 1984-86, was made a Lieutenant of the Royal Victorian Order in the 2013 New Year Honours and lives in Suffolk with his wife and four children.
.