Edward Ford ( courtier ) Lieutenant - Colonel Sir Edward William Spencer Ford , GCVO , KCB , ERD , DL ( 24 July 1910 – 19 November 2006 ) was a courtier in the Royal Household of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth II . He is perhaps best known for writing to the Queen ' s private secretary regarding the 40th year of the Queen ' s reign , having hoped that the Queen would experience an " annus mirabilis " but instead finding it an " annus horribilis " . The phrase was later used by the Queen in a speech in November 1992 to describe a year in which one of her four children was divorced , two more formally separated from their spouses , and Windsor Castle caught fire . Family background . Ford was a fraternal twin . His family has strong connections with the Anglican church and with cricket . His father was the Very Reverend Lionel Ford , headmaster of Repton and later of Harrow , and Dean of York from 1926 to 1932 ; his mother Mary Catherine was a daughter of the Right Reverend Edward Stuart Talbot , Bishop of Winchester , and wife Lavinia Lyttelton ; an uncle was Neville Stuart Talbot Bishop of Pretoria ; another uncle was a royal chaplain . His brother Neville Ford played cricket for Derbyshire , and three of his uncles played first - class cricket , including Francis Ford who played for England . Education . Ford was at West Downs School and was then a King ' s Scholar at Eton . He won an open scholarship to read Classics at New College , Oxford ( where he was elected an Honorary Fellow in 1982 ) . He obtained a first in Mods and second in Greats . Career . He was tutor to John Lascelles , son of Sir Alan Lascelles , Private Secretary to King George VI , in 1933 . He was a Harmsworth scholar at Middle Temple , before tutoring Prince ( later King ) Farouk of Egypt from 1935 – 36 . He was called to the Bar in 1937 and briefly practised law until 1939 . Military service . Ford had been commissioned as a second lieutenant in supplementary reserve of the Grenadier Guards in 1936 , and promoted to first lieutenant in 1939 . He fought in World War II in France and Belgium , being evacuated from Dunkirk , and in Tunisia and Italy , and was mentioned in despatches twice . He was brigade major of the 10th Infantry Brigade and later of the 24th Guards Brigade , and was an instructor at the Staff College in Haifa . After the war , at the invitation of Sir Alan Lascelles , he entered Royal Service as Assistant Private Secretary to King George VI , 1946 – 52 , and then served in the same office to Elizabeth II until 1967 . Ford was telephoned by the King ' s Private Secretary , Sir Alan Lascelles , with news of the King ' s death at Sandringham in February 1952 , and Ford broke the news to the Prime Minister , Sir Winston Churchill , at 10 Downing Street and then to Queen Mary , the King ' s mother , at Marlborough House . He was an Extra Equerry to the Queen from 1955 until his death . He became a close friend of Group Captain Peter Townsend , an equerry whose love affair with Princess Margaret causes a crisis early in Queen Elizabeth ' s reign . Resignation . Ford resigned from the Royal Household in 1967 , after Sir Michael Adeane , Lascelles ' successor , asked him to move to the household of the Prince of Wales to make way for the younger Philip Moore . He was secretary of the Pilgrim Trust from 1967 to 1975 , and also managed the estate of his late father - in - law , Lord Brand , at Eydon Hall in Northamptonshire . Later , he was Secretary and Registrar of the Order of Merit ( for which he received an honorarium of £100 ) from 1975 – 2003 . Annus Horribilis . Ford used the Latin phrase " annus horribilis " in a sympathetic letter to the Queen in 1992 , after a series of unfortunate events , including a major fire in Windsor Castle . In a later television documentary to mark the 40th anniversary of the Queen ' s accession , Ford chided himself for a grammatical error , saying that , in order to describe a horrible year , he properly should have written " annus horrendus " . The Queen later used the phrase in a speech : " 1992 is not a year on which I shall look back with undiluted pleasure . In the words of one of my more sympathetic correspondents , it has turned out to be an ' Annus Horribilis ' . " Honors . For his service to the Crown , Edward Ford was appointed MVO in 1949 , Companion of the Order of the Bath in 1952 , knighted as KCVO in 1957 , advanced to KCB in 1967 and promoted to the highest level in the Royal Victorian Order , Knight Grand Cross ( GCVO ) in 1998 . He received the Emergency Reserve Decoration ( ERD ) in 1987 , having long served as a reserve officer , and reaching the rank of Lieutenant - Colonel . He was also a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts , served as Deputy Lieutenant of Northamptonshire and High Sheriff of Northamptonshire . He was Prime Warden of the Goldsmiths ' Company in 1979 . He was the literary executor of Sir Alan Lascelles . Despite the sensitive nature of their contents , he managed to secure permission for Sir Alan ' s wartime diaries to be published . " King ' s Counsellor " was launched in 2006 , a few weeks before his death . Personal life . He married his wife , Virginia , in 1949 , the widow of John Metcalfe Polk . She was the daughter of the banker Robert Henry Brand , 1st Baron Brand and Phyllis Langhorne , a sister of Nancy Astor . His wife died in 1995 . Death . He died in London , survived by their two sons and a stepson . A second stepson predeceased him .