Crown Equerry

As executive head of the Royal Mews Department, he is responsible for the provision of vehicular transport for the sovereign, both cars and horse-drawn carriages.To provide continuity in the management of the Royal Mews, the role of Crown Equerry was created in 1854.[1] The first incumbent was John Groves, a retired Major of the Essex Rifles; his full title was Crown Equerry, Secretary to the Master of the Horse and Superintendent of the Royal Stables.The secretarial aspect of the job led to him being seen as inferior to the other Equerries, and he was kept at one remove from the Queen and the Palace (Charles Phipps, the Keeper of the Privy Purse, was at pains to make clear in a letter to the Master of the Horse that the new office pertained 'exclusively to the Stables department').The Queen (who esteemed him 'a kind good man') granted him direct access to her person, and it became established practice that the Crown Equerry would receive and convey the monarch's instructions directly with regard to all aspects of the Royal Mews and its operations.