Exclusive: The Secret Life of Tommy Lascelles * Part VI: Tragic Libertine and Boho Hermit

The previously untold story of the clandestine May-December romance between the most influential royal courtier of the 20th century and the official biographer of Queen Mary

In Part V: Triumph and Wounded Feelings I showed how Sir Alan “Tommy” Lascelles, the punctilious adviser to the royal family for twenty-seven years, guided Queen Mary, the official biography by Tommy’s clandestine lover, James Pope-Hennessy, past Buckingham Palace censors to triumphant publication at the end of 1959. It was a remarkable book, and Tommy’s advocacy for three years after his official retirement from royal service made it possible. Although James treated Tommy carelessly, Lascelles was unable to let him go. In Part VI of this series for my Royals Extra subscribers, I will describe how Tommy remained loyal even in the face of James’s seeming disregard for his feelings, and the lonely days after James’s untimely death.

     I should note that this final part of my series marks the 100^th Royals Extra post since I launched my Substack in March 2023. I hope you have enjoyed reading about Tommy Lascelles in a new light. Please feel free to share your reactions in the comments section.

ICYMI: A Message for the Royals Extra Community

ICYMI: Part I: Setting the Stage

ICYMI: Part II: The Making of a Courtier

ICYM: Part III: The Hidden Hand

ICYMI: Part IV: The Secret Romance

James Pope-Hennessy at the peak of his writing career

Tommy Lascelles’ yearning for James Pope-Hennessy persisted after James tried to end their relationship in June 1960. Even when Tommy didn’t hear from James, he sent chatty letters and conjured up old memories. That November, Tommy wrote, “I continually say to myself, ‘That wld amuse James.’”

Tommy’s “withers were wrung”

Tommy received a letter from James in late December and eagerly wrote at great length to “My dearest J” with a warning about James’s risky behavior with drinking and louche men. “I hope it will always be spring with you—if only you will remember that the pitcher can go once too often to the well.” Recently he had caught “a distant glimpse” of 9 Ladbroke Grove, James’s London flat.  Tommy’s “withers were wrung” thinking that he had to wait many weeks “before I could once more climb the stair to that gemütlich room, there to be welcomed by Giuliano ‘de Medici himself, all aglow in his crimson doublet and snow-white shirt. God bless yr dear heart, wh. You say d’nt exist at all, but I know better. Write again soon Much love, T.”

The record of the Lascelles and Pope-Hennessy correspondence that I found at the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles went dark for two years, with no letters from James after 1958 appearing at all. James was continuing to make a living as a writer, but he was traveling frequently, drinking heavily, and overspending, sometimes to the brink of bankruptcy.

 “He is an adorable man & of course I still like to be adored”

Tommy re-emerged in 1962 in a letter James wrote to his brother John on the first of May. James reported that Tommy’s wife Joan was going away, and that Tommy “with much coughing and averting of his face, asked me if I could dine with him every night for a week; we are doing 3 plays and 2 dinners as I said someone else must have a look-in. It is very touching, I find, he is an adorable man & of course I still like to be adored”