Martin Michael Charles Charteris, Baron Charteris of Amisfield, GCB, GCVO, OBE, QSO, PC (7 September 1913 – 23 December 1999) was a courtier of Queen Elizabeth II.
Charteris was the son of Hugo Charteris, Lord Elcho and a brother of the 12th Earl of Wemyss. He was educated at Eton and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst and was commissioned in the King's Royal Rifle Corps. He fought in the Middle East during World War II, rising to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. On his return, he married Hon. Mary Margesson (a daughter of the 1st Viscount Margesson) on 16 December 1944 and they had three children. He retired from the Army in 1951.
In 1950, he was appointed Private Secretary to Princess Elizabeth, who was then Duchess of Edinburgh and heir presumptive to the British throne. From her accession in 1952 until 1972, he served as her Assistant Private Secretary under Sir Michael Adeane. On Adeane's retirement in 1972, he was promoted to Private Secretary. He held this post until his retirement in 1977 and returned to Eton as its Provost.
In 1966, Charteris received the Grand Decoration of Honour in Silver for Services to the Republic of Austria and in 1978 he was created a life peer as Baron Charteris of Amisfield, of Amisfield in East Lothian.
Charteris was probably most notable through an interview he gave to The Spectator in 1995, in which he described the Duchess of York as "vulgar", the Prince of Wales as "whiney" and the Queen Mother as "a bit of an ostrich."
Famous quotes containing the words martin and/or baron:
“Whenever we needed money, we robbed the airport. To us it was better than Citibank.”
—Nicholas Pileggi, U.S. screenwriter, and Martin Scorsese. Henry Hill (Ray Liotta)
“People sometimes tell me that they prefer barbarism to civilisation. I doubt if they have given it a long enough trial. Like the people of Alexandria, they are bored by civilisation; but all the evidence suggests that the boredom of barbarism is infinitely greater.”
—Kenneth MacKenzie Clark, Baron of Saltwood (1903–1983)