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Gentleman Usher and Lady Usher are titles for some officers of the Royal Household of the United Kingdom. Historically the Gentlemen Ushers were among the most senior officials of the king's Chamber, next in rank only to the Lord Chamberlain and the Vice-Chamberlain; their role was first documented in the fifteenth century (for a list of office-holders from the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660 up to the present day, see List of Lady and Gentleman Ushers).
Gentleman Ushers were originally a class of servants found not only in the Royal Household, but in lesser establishments as well. They were regularly found in the households of Tudor period noblemen, and were prescribed by Richard Brathwait, in his Household of an Earle, as one of the "officers and Servants the state of an Earle requireth to have".
The duties of a Gentleman Usher, not unlike those of a contemporary butler, made him quite important in Tudor and 17th-century households. George Chapman's play The Gentleman Usher has as its title character the pompous but easily fooled Bassiolo, Gentleman Usher to Lord Lasso. Henry VIII gave an usher's position and fee to the Italian merchant Leonardo Frescobaldi.Maria Hayward, The Great Wardrobe Accounts of Henry VII and Henry VIII (Boydell, 2012), p. xliii, xlix, 153.
Under Henry VII the duties of the Gentlemen Ushers were set out in more detail: for example, at least one usher was required to be in attendance every day, wherever the King was, to 'keep the door' between the hours of 8am and nightfall, during which time they were to "suffer no stranger to come in without the commandment of the Lord Chamberlain, or his deputy, or one of the King's council". The Gentlemen Ushers were high-ranking courtiers at this time, it being enjoined that "in the absence of the chamberlain, the usher shall have the same power to command in like manner". Prior to the Interregnum, Gentlemen Ushers carried a short white staff, half the length of that of the Lord Chamberlain, as a symbol of their authority.
Under Henry VIII the Gentleman Ushers were separated into three classes: Gentleman Ushers of the Privy Chamber, Gentleman Ushers Daily Waiters and Gentleman Ushers Quarter Waiters:
At the Union of Crowns, James VI and I came to York in May 1603 and swore Elizabeth's former ushers as his servants, including Richard Coningsby and George Pollard, and the quarter waiters Thomas Rolles and Master Hariffe.Edward Arber, An English Garner, vol. 8 (Archibald Constable, 1896), p. 506. Anne of Denmark, queen consort of James VI and I, had four usher quarter waiters as well as a gentleman usher John Tunstall. The yearly fee was £40, and to buy the office in queen's household in December 1603 would cost £250. Trevelyan Papers, 3 (London: Camden Society, 1872), p. 55. When one of the ushers, Watson, died of plague, the queen's chamberlain Robert Sidney appointed a replacement and swore him in without consulting her. Trevelyan Papers, 3 (London: Camden Society, 1872), pp. 62–63. A Scottish usher called Bochan or Buchanan fought with Edward Herbert over Mary Middlemore one of Anne of Denmark's maids of honour.Norman Egbert McClure, Letters of John Chamberlain, vol. 1 (Philadelphia, 1939), p. 296. Tunstall and two of Anne of Denmark's usher quarter waiters, Francis Constable of Sherburn and Timothy Pinckney, later joined the household of Henrietta Maria as ushers with Maurice Drummond and William Gordon.John William Clay, Abstracts of Yorkshire Wills (Worksop, 1890), p. 86: Mary Anne Everett Green, Calendar State Papers Domestic, Charles II: 1660–1661 (London, 1860), p. 334.
Following the Restoration, King Charles II reconstituted the royal household in a manner 'conformable to the ancient Ordinances of our House'. A detailed set of regulations was published with regard to the many and various duties of the Gentlemen Ushers at this time, which ranged from having responsibility for apportioning rooms to those who were to lodge within the King's house, and 'knowing the King's mind when it shall please him to have any musick', to issuing the nightly call for the King's bed to be made, and having command of the Royal barge and Royal Watermen.
By the eighteenth century, the Bedchamber (which was under the authority of the Groom of the Stole, and beyond the remit of the Gentlemen Ushers) had supplanted the Privy Chamber as the monarch's private enclave, and an adjacent Drawing Room became the main place of assembly at Court (in place of the Presence Chamber). The Privy Chamber and Presence Chamber then became little more than gathering spaces for visitors, largely indistinguishable from one another. Nevertheless, both chambers retained their separate staff of Gentlemen Ushers, who (though no longer closely involved with the day-to-day routines of the monarch) continued to serve a practical role overseeing these spaces on a day-to-day basis. Under Queen Victoria the Gentlemen Ushers of the Privy Chamber were still said to be in regular attendance on the Queen: they had "the honour of conducting Her Majesty in the absence of the higher officers" and were "the sole attendants in the Closet and the Chapel".
Over time, the role of the Gentleman Ushers became increasingly ceremonial and they exercised less supervision over the staff. In 1901, King Edward VII abolished the separate designations and began to appoint simply Gentleman Ushers in Ordinary.
When on duty Ushers generally wear either Service uniform with a brassard displaying the royal cypher or morning or evening dress, depending on the occasion. They receive a modest honorarium for the upkeep of their orders of dress.
Among their duties, they act as ushers at Royal Garden Parties and as well as on State occasions. At royal weddings, funerals, coronations and other large church services they may be called upon to lead royal and other important guests in procession before conducting them to their seats. Occasionally they may be called upon to attend an event (e.g. a memorial service) as the monarch's representative.
The first Lady Usher of the Black Rod was appointed in 2017; the first Lady Usher in Ordinary was appointed in 2021.
Ushers retire at 70, when they may become Extra Lady or Gentleman Ushers.
Gentleman Ushers of the Black Rod also exist for New Zealand, Australia and its states, and Canada. In some respects, the Military Social Aides to the US President, who attend on some 2 to 4 afternoons a month to assist visitors to the White House, are an American and more recent equivalent to the Gentleman Ushers in Ordinary.
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