[Icelander]

Through diligent Googling and cross-references of Wikipedia lists, I've found an ample supply of real people to fictionalise into early members of the Queen's conspiracy. Lists of ladies-in-waiting*, equerries and posts in the Royal Household are plentiful, if somewhat tedious to cross-reference for data relevant to my purposes.

What I did not find were, obviously, people who might be friends with HM or members of her family, but do not seek or accept a post in the Royal Household. I'd still welcome any suggestions about personal friends outside of the Royal Households of HRH the Queen Mother Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, HRH Prince Philip and HM Queen Elizabeth II, in particular.

I also wonder about the 'common' people who might have regular contact with HM, but whose names are not usually published. I'm talking about maids, footmen and the other domestic staff of the palaces. I know about Angela Kelly LVO and plan to use her as an accomplished witch charged with magical defence of HM, but what about other servants employed by the Queen? Does anyone know anything about them?

How many are there, for one thing? How many domestic staff are employed on personal attendance to HM and HRH Prince Philip? Do they staff each residence, always maintaining a full complement at each one even when no royals happen to be occupying it, or do some or all of them follow their Royal Highnesses when they move between palaces? What about Balmoral and Birkhall? How many domestic servants, groundskeepers and suchlike work there?

Does Windsor have a butler, running his staff of domestic servants in the best Downtown Abbey style, with possibly a touch of Colour Sergeantry thrown in? Does HRH Prince Philip have a valet, a gentleman's personal gentleman?

I guess I'm asking to what extent the Royal Family has managed to retain a Victorian or Ewardian (at least as it extended into the Jazz Age interbellum) feel as regards domestic staff? Do they still have veteran live-in servants, with familial traditions of service, or does a cleaning staff with rotating minimum-wage personnel arrive daily and check out at night?

Presumably there are chefs and suchlike. Given the volume of fancy dinners and receptions, it would be a necessity. Are any of their names known? Or at least what a typical one is like? Are they top-notch restaurant chefs or is that a different speciality? Do they usually only work there for a for a comparatively short time, regarding an offer from Buckingham Palace or Windsor as they'd regard one from a top restaurant?

In other words, is the hiring process for Buckingham Palace, Windsor, Balmoral, Clarence House and other royal places a competative, businesslike one run by some HR person or is it arcane, opaque and hide-bound? Would it be unusual for HM to take a direct interest in it? Are there families where there is a tradition of service as a domestic servant, kitchen staff or in other day-to-day service jobs connected to the Royal Family? Is preference given to people with such backgrounds?

I know that Angela Kelly apparently started work in the Palace as a maid right after her service as a WREN. By her age, that would be in the mid-70s, which also fits some newspaper accounts saying that she has 'dressed HM for forty years'. She rose to personal dresser in 1993-1994, replacing Bobo McDonald, and apparently successfully agitated for a change in name that better matched her responsibilities, becoming 'Personal Assistant' at some point after that. In 2002, she became Senior Dresser, which apparently meant that now she was responsible for the design of all the outfits (instead of buying them from designers) and that she has authority over an unknown number of HM's personal staff.

So, there's clearly some element of long service and loyalty, instead of people just being hired from the fashion industry for their skills. Bobo McDonald is an even better example, having started as a nursery maid and served as nanny before becoming a personal dresser, which post she then held for a lifetime or so. In all, Bobo served HM from 1926, until her death at 89 years of age in 1993.

I'm curious whether there are any other such people, who have spent their whole lives in the entourage of HM, even if they don't count as holding positions in the Royal Household, but are instead staff of either a particular royal residence or of the Royal Household in general. Anyone who might have started as footman and now serves as valet or butler? A chef who rose from potato-peeler?

And would it be implausible to place a grizzled old ex-Navy warrant officer in a position of some authority among HRH Prince Philip's staff, as a butler of Windsor or Balmoral, a valet or maybe just a senior footman?

Into what kind of service positions would their Highnesses be be able to discreetly place initiated members of the conspiracy with useful skills? Groundskeepers at Balmoral and Birkhall, probably. What else?

*With all their arcane nomenaclature, depending on their birth, title, husband's rank and whether they serve just a royal or a monarch.