Lieutenant ColonelThe Right Honourable The Earl of Harewood KG GCVO DSO &Bar TD ADC JP DL
Full name	Henry George Charles Lascelles
Born	(1882-09-09)9 September 1882 43 Belgrave Square,London, England
Died	24 May 1947(1947-05-24) (aged 64) Harewood House,Yorkshire
Buried	27 May 1947 All Saints Church,Harewood,Yorkshire
Spouse	Mary, Princess Royal ​ ​ (m. 1922)​
Issue	George Lascelles, 7th Earl of Harewood Gerald Lascelles
Father	Henry Lascelles, 5th Earl of Harewood
Mother	Lady Florence Bridgeman

Henry George Charles Lascelles, 6th Earl of Harewood (9 September 1882 – 24 May 1947), known by thecourtesy title ofViscount Lascelles until 1929, was a Britishsoldier and peer. He was the husband ofMary, Princess Royal, and thus a son-in-law ofKing George V andQueen Mary and a brother-in-law to kingsEdward VIII andGeorge VI.

Lascelles was the son ofHenry Lascelles, 5th Earl of Harewood, andLady Florence Bridgeman, daughter ofOrlando Bridgeman, 3rd Earl of Bradford. He was born at the London home of his maternal grandfather, 43 Belgrave Square.^[1]

In 1916, the vast fortune of his great uncle, the2nd Marquess of Clanricarde, devolved upon Lascelles.^[2] In a letter to his mother, dated 20 April 1916, Lascelles estimated that the gross value of his inheritance from Lord Clanricarde at £2,750,000, with a net value closer to £2,000,000 after the payment of £200,000 in estate tax and other expenses. From this, he anticipated that he would enjoy an annual income of £80,000, from which he would pay approximately £34,000 in income tax; privately, he expressed his disappointment that a fortune of nearly £3,000,000 would be reduced by taxation to a net annual income of £46,000.^[3]

During Lascelles' youth, his father had sold the family's grand London townhouse inHanover Square, Mayfair, in 1893.^[4] This house, also known as Harewood House (previously Roxburghe House), had been purchased by his great-great-grandfatherHenry Lascelles, 2nd Earl of Harewood fromJohn Ker, 3rd Duke of Roxburghe in 1795.^[4] In 1894, the 5th Earl of Harewood purchased a smaller London townhouse, 13 Upper Belgrave Street, which was later used by his mother following his father's death in 1929. The house was sold following the death of the Dowager Countess of Harewood in 1943.^[4]

In April 1918, an agreement was reached with the Dowager Lady Burton, widow ofMichael Bass, 1st Baron Burton, for the purchase of a palatial London townhouse,Chesterfield House, for £140,000. The sale was finalised after the end of the First World War, and Lascelles took up residence there in 1919.^[5] In 1925, he purchased a country house and horse stud, Egerton House in Newmarket, Suffolk, which he used during the annual racing season.^[4] Following his death, Egerton House was sold.^[4]

In 1931, King George V and Queen Mary purchased 32Green Street, Mayfair, as a London home for Princess Mary, rendering Chesterfield House surplus to the couple's needs. The Harewoods vacated Chesterfield House in early 1932.^[6] Queen Mary reportedly expressed an interest in purchasing 32 Green Street as a London house for her daughter in 1931, and consent was obtained from property's owner,Hugh Grosvenor, 2nd Duke of Westminster with the proviso that Grosvenor Estates could maintain the right to repurchase the house at a future date if its use as a royal residence ceased.^[7] The couple continued to occupy № 32 Green Street when in London until the outbreak of War in 1939, and the House was repurchased byGrosvenor Estate in 1946;^[8] the house was later repurposed as theEmbassy of Brazil.^[7] Following the outbreak of the Second World War, the couple were given use of a small grace-and-favour apartment atSt James's Palace, which continued to be their London residence for the remainder of their respective lives.^[9]

Lord HarewoodmarriedPrincess Mary, only daughter ofKing George V andQueen Mary, atWestminster Abbey, on 28 February 1922. His best man wasSir Victor Mackenzie, 3rd Baronet.^[10]

After their marriage, Lord Harewood and Princess Mary split their time between their homes,Chesterfield House in London;Goldsborough Hall, part of the Harewood Estate; andHarewood House itself, inYorkshire, which became their family home in 1930, after the death ofhis father in October 1929.They had two children:

• George Henry Hubert Lascelles, 7th Earl of Harewood (born atChesterfield House on 7 February 1923, baptised at St Mary's Church,Goldsborough, on 25 March 1923, and died on 11 July 2011);
• Gerald David Lascelles (born atGoldsborough Hall on 21 August 1924, and died on 27 February 1998).

Their elder son, the7th Earl of Harewood, wrote about his parents' marriage in his memoirs,The Tongs and the Bones, and described their relationship, saying that "they got on well together and had a lot of friends and interests in common". He also noted that "[s]hy, aloof and worse, I have heard my father called since; but that was not how his friends knew him [or] how his family felt about him; and I knew then, and know still, that when I was 24 I lost potentially the best friend and mentor I could ever have – at precisely the moment I discovered this was so".^[11]

After education atEton College, Lascelles attended theRoyal Military College, Sandhurst,^[1] before being commissioned as asecond lieutenant in theGrenadier Guards on 12 February 1902,^[12] serving until 1905.^[13] He was an honorary attaché at the British embassy inParis from 1905 to 1907, then served as aide-de-camp to theGovernor General of Canada, Earl Grey, until 1911.^[1]

In 1913, he joined theTerritorial Army as second lieutenant in theYorkshire Hussars yeomanry. He was promotedlieutenant in the reserve of officers in 1914.^[13] He continued with the yeomanry after the outbreak of theFirst World War until he rejoined the Grenadier Guards for service on theWestern Front in April 1915.^[1] Even so, he continued to be promoted within the regiment tocaptain in 1917.^[14] Post-war he was promotedmajor in 1920 and retired in 1924.^[15]

Meanwhile, at the front, he was wounded in the head at theSecond Battle of Givenchy, but recovered to fight in theBattle of Loos in 1915, and was wounded twice more as well as gassed.^[1] He was promoted captain and later major in command of a battalion (the 3rd) in 1915,^[13] andlieutenant-colonel in 1918.^[14] He was appointed Companion of theDistinguished Service Order (DSO), and received a bar to that decoration, both in 1918, as well as theFrench Croix de Guerre.^[15]

He continued his interest in the Territorial movement after the war, asHonorary Colonel of the1st (City of London) Battalion, London Regiment (Royal Fusiliers) from 1923, the 5th BattalionWest Yorkshire Regiment from 1937, and as president of the West Yorkshire Territorial Forces Association from 1928. He was also appointed in 1937 honoraryair commodore of the 609 (West Riding) Bomber Squadron of theAuxiliary Air Force.^[16]

After the war, Lascelles remained interested in localYorkshire issues and events, often contributing to the Leeds Board of Management. He was president of the Yorkshire Rural Community Council.^[17][18] He was Lord Lieutenant of the West Riding of Yorkshire from 1927 until his death.^[1]

He was president of theRoyal Agricultural Society of England in 1929 when that year'sRoyal Show was held atHarrogate.^[1]

Interested in equestrian sports, he served as Master of the Bramham Moor Hounds from 1921,^[15] and was a steward of theJockey Club and co-editor ofFlat Racing (1940) for the London Library.^[1]

Lord Harewood, aFreemason, served asGrand Master of theUnited Grand Lodge of England from 1942 to 1947.^[19]

As Viscount Lascelles, he attempted to enter theHouse of Commons in 1913. He stood as theUnionist candidate in the1913 Keighley by-election. (TheLiberal incumbent,Sir Stanley Buckmaster, had been appointedSolicitor General.) In the three-cornered fight, which also included aLabour candidate, he came second to Buckmaster by 878 votes.

He did not seek election again, and his defeat led to a later distaste for politics. He declared in later life: "[E]very war in which Britain had been involved had been due to the inefficiency of politicians, and they began what soldiers had to end".^[1]

On succeeding to his father's earldom, he became a member of theHouse of Lords.

Lord Harewood died of a heart attack on 24 May 1947 at the age of 64 at his home,Harewood House. He is buried in the Lascelles' family vault atAll Saints' Church, Harewood. Lady Harewood, the Princess Royal, survived him by almost eighteen years, dying in 1965.

The Harewood Estates were valued at £1,400,000 for probate, upon which approximately £800,000 in death duties were payable.^[20]

It is widely understood thatVirginia Woolf based the character of Archduke Henry on him in her novelOrlando, a tribute to her loverVita Sackville-West. Henry Lascelles was one of West's suitors.^[21] In the 2019 filmDownton Abbey, Viscount Lascelles is played byAndrew Havill.

British:

• Companion of the Distinguished Service Order (DSO), with Bar – 3 June 1918 (Bar – 3 Apr 1919)
• Knight Companion of the Garter (KG) – 27 February 1922
• Knight of Grace of the Order of St John of Jerusalem^[15] – 1 March 1923
• Territorial Decoration (TD) – 10 May 1929
• Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order (GCVO) – 1 January 1934
• Personal Aide-de-Camp (ADC(P)) – 1 February 1937^[22]
• Recipient of theKing George VI Coronation Medal – 12 May 1937^[23]

Foreign:

• Croix de Guerre 1914–1918 (France)
• Grand Cross of Order of Muhammad Ali (Egypt)^[24]
• Order of St Olav (Norway)^[25]

Coat of arms of Henry, 6th Earl of Harewood	Arms of Alliance of Lord Harwood andPrincess Mary

Wikimedia Commons has media related toHenry Lascelles, 6th Earl of Harewood.

• Hansard 1803–2005:contributions in Parliament by the Earl of Harewood
• Portraits of Henry Lascelles, 6th Earl of Harewood at theNational Portrait Gallery, London

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