Henry Ponsonby

For the Irish soldier, see Henry Ponsonby (died 1745).

Major General The Right Honourable Sir Henry Ponsonby GCB
The Privy Purse Ponsonby as caricatured by Théobald Chartran in Vanity Fair, March 1883
Private Secretary to the Sovereign
In office 1870–1895
Monarch	Queen Victoria
Preceded by	Gen. The Hon. Sir Charles Grey
Succeeded by	Lt. Col. The Rt. Hon. Sir Arthur Bigge
Personal details
Nationality	British

Sir Henry Frederick Ponsonby GCB (10 December 1825 – 21 November 1895) was a British soldier and royal court official who served as Queen Victoria's Private Secretary.

Biography

He was the son of the British Army general, Sir Frederick Cavendish Ponsonby.

Ponsonby rose to the rank of Colonel in the Grenadier Guards and fought in the Crimean War. On 30 April 1861, he married Hon. Mary Elizabeth Bulteel, a daughter of John Crocker Bulteel (1793-1843) MP and they had five children:

• Alberta Victoria Ponsonby (6 May 1862-15 October 1945)
• Magdalen Ponsonby (24 June 1864- 1 July 1934)
• John Ponsonby (25 March 1866 – 26 March 1952)
• Frederick Edward Grey Ponsonby (16 September 1867 – 20 October 1935)
• Arthur Augustus William Harry Ponsonby (16 February 1871 – 24 March 1946)

Ponsonby embellished letters to his children at Eton with a series of illustrations in which he concealed the school's address. It was a family quirk continued by his son, Arthur Ponsonby, and recently revived by descendant Harriet Russell. His letters bore addresses appearing as doodled signposts in snowstorms or as huge envelopes shouldered by tiny people.

He served as Keeper of the Privy Purse and Private Secretary to Queen Victoria. His appointment occurred 8 April 1870, after the death of prior Private Secretary General Charles Grey, who was "a son of Earl Grey, the Prime Minister" at the time and who was wife Mary Ponsonby's "Uncle Charles." Both Arthur and Mary Ponsonby contributed pseudonymously to magazines and newspapers of the day.

His son Arthur wrote a biography of him which won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 1942: Henry Ponsonby, Queen Victoria's Private Secretary: His Life from His Letters.

In Mrs. Brown, he was portrayed by Geoffrey Palmer whose close friend and frequent co-star, Dame Judi Dench played Queen Victoria.

References

Court offices
Preceded by Sir Thomas Myddelton Biddulph	Keeper of the Privy Purse 1878–1895	Succeeded by Sir Fleetwood Edwards
Preceded by Sir Charles Grey	Private Secretary to the Sovereign 1870–1895	Succeeded by Sir Arthur Bigge