UK government security case for Prince Harry: Who is Sir Edward Young?

Prince Harry’s legal battle with the British Home Office has exposed a real rupture in his relationship with Queen Elizabeth II’s closest staff after it emerged that the government’s decision to reduce the prince’s security was taken in consultation with Buckingham Palace.

In a Supreme Court hearing on Thursday to determine whether the prince can proceed with his case against the Ministry of Interior for security reasons, his lawyer Shahid Fatima revealed that “there are significant tensions between the plaintiff [Prince Harry] And some people “who were part of the committee that made the decision about his protection.

Harry also said he should have been informed that the Queen’s staff had been included in the decision, which, he says, would make spending time in the UK a danger to himself and his wife, Meghan Markle.

As to who of the Queen’s staff was involved in the operation, and to what extent Harry was supposed to have experienced “great tension”, Fatima identified Sir Edward Young, one of those working close to the King, among them.

Who is Sir Edward Young?

Sir Edward Young, 55, is Queen Elizabeth II’s private secretary and the Queen’s archivist.

Trained at the Reading School, Young went on to work in the financial sector in the 1990s before becoming a government advisor to Conservative Party members.

In 2004, after serving as Head of Corporate Communications at Grenada Television Group plc, Young received his first royal appointment, joining the Queen’s staff as her assistant private secretary at Buckingham Palace in London.

For thirteen years, Young worked closely with the Queen’s private secretary, Lord Gedette, who retired in 2017.

Gedet has been credited with much of the modernization of the monarchy since the millennium, and after retiring from the royal family he went on to advise Boris Johnson, before stepping down in 2022.

The young woman was later promoted to the vacant Jade position as the Queen’s private secretary, the highest position in her personal staff.

Young, Harry and Megan

Young’s promotion to private secretary came while Meghan Markle and Prince Harry worked out their May 2018 wedding for the young couple who defined the royal roles they were interested in pursuing.

Later, in her 2021 interview with Oprah Winfrey, Meghan talked about the limitations of real life, as the royal family seems reluctant to help her reach out to people and participate in the work she’s been trying to do.

Meghan explained, “A family member came up and said, ‘Why don’t you stay hidden for a while, because you’re all over the place now.

And I said: I left the house twice in four months. They are everywhere, but they are nowhere. And from this point of view, I kept saying to people, “I know there’s an obsession with the way things look, but has anyone ever talked about how you feel? Because right now I don’t feel alone anymore.”

in his book Brothers battleRobert Lacey writes that it was Young’s lack of imagination in defining Meghan’s early role that led to her unhappiness, and eventually the young duchess left real life for the United States with Harry.

“Young especially failed when it came to Meghan,” wrote Lacey. “The Queen has evidently noted the inability of Sir Edward Young and his staff to find a satisfactory role for the well-defined talents of the American newcomer.”

When the Sussex family began to move away from real life, Lacey said that a power struggle had arisen between Buckingham Palace, led by Young, and the staff of the new Duke and Duchess.

Lacey said: “When it comes to any case in Sussex, the authority of the private secretary is now being challenged by the Sunshine Sachs channels through which Harry and Meghan have insisted they carry out their outreach activities.”

When it comes to the tough negotiations between Harry, Prince Charles, Prince William and the Queen over the Sussex’s exit from real life, Young is said to have played a vital role as mediator. During this time it is clear that Young’s relationship with the couple will be strained.

During Meghan and Harry’s interview with Winfrey, the couple expressed their dislike of ‘The Firm’, or the royal house, with the Duchess saying:

“My experience over the last four years is that it’s not what it seems at all…and I remember a lot of people inside the studio saying, ‘Well, you can’t do this because it’s going to look like this.'” You can not’. “

Perhaps the biggest clue ahead of the information released as part of Thursday’s High Court hearing, that Harry in particular had had problems with staff closest to the Queen, came in April 2022 in an interview with Invictus. Games.

On the way to the games in Holland, the King stopped with Megan at Windsor Castle to see the Queen. talking with today The presenter of the program, Hoda Kotb, said after the meeting:

“to be with [the queen], it was great. It was good to see her. It is in excellent condition. She always has a good sense of humor with me and I just make sure she’s, you know, protected and has the right people around her.”

This comment about having the “right people” around his grandmother has been widely analyzed and led many to speculate that the prince felt he might not have the right people in his inner circle, despite Young staying put.

The Supreme Court hearing in Harry’s case with the Home Office on security is still ongoing. However, it was announced that the prince is seeking a second judicial review over allegations that his offer to pay for security with his personal wealth was not passed to the committee that decided to scale back his protection.