Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Phipps, Charles Beaumont
PHIPPS, Sir CHARLES BEAUMONT (1801–1866), court official, second son of Henry Phipps, first earl of Mulgrave and viscount Normanby [q. v.], was born at Mulgrave Castle, Yorkshire, on 27 Dec. 1801, and educated at Harrow. He entered the army as an ensign and lieutenant in the Scots fusilier guards on 17 Aug. 1820, and ultimately became lieutenant-colonel (26 May 1837). On 22 Jan. 1847 he was placed on half-pay. He retired from active service on 11 Nov. 1851, and was thenceforth a colonel unattached. Meanwhile Phipps acted as secretary to his brother, Constantine Henry, first marquis of Normanby [q. v.], when governor of Jamaica, 1832-4, and in that capacity went from plantation to plantation, announcing to the slaves that they were to be free. When his brother went to Ireland as lord lieutenant in 1835, Phipps became steward of the viceregal household, and held the office until 1839. For a short time he was secretary to the master-general of the ordnance. On 1 Aug. 1846 he became equerry to the queen, and on 1 Jan. 1847 private secretary to the prince consort. He soon was appointed the prince's treasurer. On the death of C. E. Anson he was made keeper of her majesty's purse, 10 Oct. 1849. In these offices his integrity and zeal were highly appreciated by the queen and the prince consort. He became treasurer and cofferer to the Prince of Wales on 10 Oct. 1849, was nominated C.B. on 6 Sept. 1853, and K.C.B. on 19 Jan. 1858. He was made receiver-general of the duchy of Cornwall on 26 May 1862, and one of the council to the Prince of Wales in January 1803. On 8 Feb. 1864 he was appointed secretary to the Prince of Wales as steward of Scotland. He died of bronchitis at his apartments, Ambassadors' Court, St. James's Palace, on 24 Feb. 1866. As a testimony of the high esteem in which he was held, the court appointed for 27 Feb. was postponed to March, and, in obedience to the desire of her majesty, he was buried in the catacombs of St. George's Chapel, Windsor, on 2 March. He married, on 25 June 1835, Margaret Anne, second daughter of Henry Bathurst, archdeacon of York. She was granted a civil list pension of 150l. on 23 March 1866, and died on 13 April 1874. The issue of the marriage were two sons and two daughters, the eldest son being Charles Edmund, born in 1844, a captain in the 18th regiment of foot.
[Gent. Mag. April 1866, pp. 587-8; Men of the Time, 1865, p. 660; Illustr. London News, 1862, xlii. 399-400, with portrait.]