who is Sir Edward Young, the private secretary to the Queen of England, first informed of the monarch’s death

Sir Edward Young is 55 and spent 18 in the service of Elizabeth II. You may have seen him on the images no later than Tuesday September 6, he is the one who welcomes Liz Truss, the new Prime Minister who arrives in Scotland for her very first audience. The official car pulls up in front of Balmoral Castle and he states his identity as he waves to Liz Truss who gets out of the car. On the images, Edward Young appears as a slender man, in a civilian costume who welcomes the Prime Minister alongside another man, in uniform this one. It’s the Queen’s Equerry, Lieutenant-Colonel Tom White.

On Thursday, Sir Edward was brought to speak to Liz Truss again because it was he who was responsible for calling the Prime Minister for the announcement of the death, when the time came by evoking the famous coded message, almost military, planned for years. decades “London Bridge is down”. He was also responsible for calling political leaders and senior officials.

Sir Edward Young was born on October 24, 1966. After studying at Reading School in Berkshire, he was hired at the age of 19 by Barclays, where he spent 22 years, occupying various management positions, in charge of international trade or the European currency program. He was never elected, but worked a little for the Conservatives between 1999 and 2001, when the Labor Party was in power (in this case Tony Blair), he spent two years in the service of the Tories. First adviser to the Chancellor of the Exchequer of the shadow cabinet, Michael Portillo, then to the leader of the opposition, William Hague. He also has media experience, having worked for the Granada group, notably on the creation of the independent channel ITV.

It was in 2004 that he entered the service of the Queen. Sir Edward Young was then 38 years old. He starts as an assistant private assistant. Three years later, he was promoted to Deputy Private Secretary, then Private Secretary in 2017 and for five years he has truly been the Queen’s closest adviser.

Sir Edward Young arguably won the trust of Queen Elizabeth II in 2011 by penning a speech considered pivotal in Anglo-Irish relations. We all remember the Queen’s parachute jump with James Bond for the London Olympics in 2012. She was 86! Well, he was the one who had convinced her. There’s this video, Daniel Craig (007) arriving in the Queen’s silent drawing room to take her away. She’s in her pink dress doing her mail and she’s off to parachute! it must have amused him a lot.

As private secretary he is really one of the closest, he follows her everywhere, adviser from the shadows, right arm. He manages the agenda, links with any type of organization, the services of the various palaces (Buckingham, Clarence House, Kensington, Saint James). He supervises the mail, the speeches. Dedicated H24: reassuring in times of doubt. Happy in moments of euphoria, without ever making a mistake. She had fired under a predecessor in whom she no longer trusted. In January 2020, when Meghan and Harry decide to break with the royal family, Sir Edward is on the front line to find a consensus! She is so grateful to him (it must be said that it came after Brexit and after the Epstein scandal which affected his son Andrew!) that she granted him an extremely rare honor by granting him the title of Knight Commander of the Royal Order of Victoria.