Lord Great Chamberlain

The Lord Great Chamberlain of England is the sixth of the Great Officers of State, ranking beneath the Lord Privy Seal but above the Lord High Constable. The office of Lord Great Chamberlain is an ancient one: it was first created around 1126 (in Norman times) and has been in continuous existence since 1138. The incumbent is Rupert Carington, 7th Baron Carrington.

The Lord Great Chamberlain is entrusted by the Sovereign with custody of the Palace of Westminster, the seat of the British Parliament, and serves as his representative therein. From the Restoration until 1963, the Lord Great Chamberlain was responsible for physical plant and facility management throughout the Palace of Westminster, in effect serving as a property manager for the entire parliamentary estate. Today, the Lord Great Chamberlain enjoys plenary jurisdiction in those precincts of the Palace of Westminster not assigned to either the House of Lords or the House of Commons: namely, the Royal Apartments, Central Lobby, and the Crypt Chapel. To this end, the Lord Great Chamberlain is responsible for the use, preservation, and occupation of such spaces. In addition, the Lord Great Chamberlain is one of the three commissioners who exercise joint control and maintenance over Westminster Hall; the other commissioners are the Lord Speaker of the House of Lords and the Speaker of the House of Commons.

The Lord Great Chamberlain performs other less routine functions as custodian of the Palace of Westminster. For example, the Lord Great Chamberlain welcomes foreign heads of state visiting the Palace of Westminster. Likewise, the Lord Great Chamberlain is responsible for attending upon the Sovereign and other members of the British royal family whenever any one of them is present on the parliamentary estate. In the latter case, the Lord Great Chamberlain is authorised to make any administrative arrangements necessary for delivery of services required by the Sovereign and their family.

However, the Lord Great Chamberlain’s most publicly visible parliamentary role is organising state openings of Parliament. In making the necessary arrangements, the Lord Great Chamberlain is assisted by Black Rod and consults the Earl Marshal, who is responsible for preparing the Order of Ceremonial distributed to attendees and martialing the Sovereign's procession. On the day of the state opening, the Lord Great Chamberlain receives the Sovereign at the Norman Porch, enrobes him or her with the Robe of State and the Imperial State Crown in the Robing Room, and participates in the Sovereign’s procession through the Royal Gallery and the Prince's Chamber into the Lords Chamber. It is also the Lord Great Chamberlain who, upon the command of the Sovereign, directs Black Rod to summon members of the House of Commons to attend the House of Lords for the purpose of hearing the speech from the throne.

Parliamentary responsibilities aside, the Lord Great Chamberlain also has a major part to play in royal coronations, having the right to dress the monarch on coronation day and to serve the monarch water before and after the coronation banquet. Likewise, the Lord Great Chamberlain invests the monarch with the insignia of rule during the coronation service. On state occasions like coronations, the Lord Great Chamberlain wears a distinctive scarlet court uniform and bears a gold key and a white staff as the insignia of his office.

The office of Lord Great Chamberlain is distinct from the non-hereditary office of Lord Chamberlain of the Household, a position in the monarch's household. This office arose in the 14th century as a deputy of the Lord Great Chamberlain to fulfil the latter's duties in the Royal Household, but now they are quite distinct.^{[citation needed]}

The House of Lords Act 1999 removed the automatic right of hereditary peers to sit in the House of Lords, but the Act provided that a hereditary peer exercising the office of Lord Great Chamberlain (as well as the Earl Marshal) be exempt from such a rule, in order to perform ceremonial functions.^{[citation needed]}

The position is a hereditary one, held since 1780 in gross. At any one time, no single person actually exercises the office of Lord Great Chamberlain. The various individuals who hold fractions of the office are properly each Joint Hereditary Lord Great Chamberlain. They choose one individual of the rank of a knight or higher to be the Deputy Lord Great Chamberlain. Under an agreement made in 1912, the right to exercise the office for a given reign rotates among three families (of the then three joint office holders) in proportion to the fraction of the office held. For instance, the Marquesses of Cholmondeley hold one-half of the office, and may therefore exercise the office or appoint a deputy every alternate reign. Whenever one of the three shares of the 1912 agreement is split further, the joint heirs of this share have to agree among each other, who should be their deputy or any mechanism to determine who of them has the right to choose a deputy.