Third gong for HM’s loyal aide forced out over royal rivalries
The Queen’s right-hand man, Sir Christopher geidt, is said to feel ‘ very bruised’ after being ousted following ten years’ loyal service.
to heal the rift, the Queen has given her most trusted courtier a fitting send-off.
When Sir Christopher, 56, stepped down as her private secretary on thursday, HM bestowed yet another knighthood on him — his third in six years — during a private audience at Balmoral.
in addition to his Knight Commander of the royal Victorian Order (KCVO), and Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath KCB (see panel, right), Sir Christopher now bears the highest insignia in the royal Victorian Order, the Knight grand Cross (GBE), given to those who have served the monarch ‘in a personal way’.
Sir Christopher is thought to have fallen out of royal favour amid chaotic power struggles as Prince Charles and the younger royals take on more of the Queen’s duties under ‘Operation handover’.
Sources say Prince Charles and Prince andrew dislike Sir Christo- pher because of his influence over their affairs. Following a clash in May, Charles reportedly spoke to the Queen and said: ‘geidt has got to go.’
Sir Christopher denied he was forced out, but is said to feel that the Queen failed to support him. the former army intelligence officer is recovering from his bruising treatment by climbing in austria and tending his sheep on his farm in the Outer hebrides.
the power struggle between the Queen’s household at Buckingham Palace and Prince Charles’s court at Clarence house has triggered a wave of departures of senior palace officials.
Since Sir Christopher fell on his sword in July, the Queen’s assistant private secretary, Samantha Cohen, and Prince Charles’s private secretary, Mark leishman, have quit too.
rebecca Deacon, the Duchess of Cambridge’s right- hand aide, resigned in March, and the Keeper of the Privy Purse, Sir alan reid, will retire at the end of the year.
One courtier said: ‘ you could describe it all as a right royal shambles.’