George Lascelles
Lascelles, George Henry Hubert, 7th Earl of Harewood KBE AM (1923-2011), Arts Director
George Henry Hubert Lascelles was born on 7 February 1923 in London at Chesterfield House, Mayfair. His father was Henry George Charles Lascelles and his mother was Princess Mary, the only daughter of King George V. Lascelles grew up in Yorkshire, initally at Goldsborough Hall in Knaresborough. In 1929 his father inherited the earldom and became the 6th Earl of Harewood. Accordingly, the family moved to Harewood House, Leeds, in 1930. Lascelles was educated at Ludgrove Preparatory School, a boarding school, and Eton College. He was keenly interested in music, opera and sports.
In 1942, aged 19, Lascelles joined the British Army in the Grenadier Guards regiment as an officer. He served in Algeria and Italy and achieved the rank of captain. In June 1944, near Perugia, he was wounded and captured. He spent two months recovering in Italian hospitals and then was moved to Germany as a Prisoner of War and was kept at camps in Moosburg, Spansberg and Colditz. In 1945 a German Lieutenant General, Gottlob Berger, sensing the war was coming to an end, acted against his orders and handed the prisoners over to the allies. Lascelles was freed and he returned home to Harewood House in May 1945.
Post war Lascelles briefly served as an aide-de-camp to his great Uncle, the Earl of Athlone, Canada's governor-general. Consequently, Lascelles lived in Ottawa from November 1945 – May 1946. In December 1946 he was demobilised and began studying English at King's College, Cambridge in January 1947. His studies were sometimes interrupted by his duties to the state; he would receive ambassadors and transact business in the monarch’s absence. Lascelles completed his degree with a 2:2.
On 23 May 1947 Lascelles's father died and he inherited Harewood House and the title of 7th Earl of Harewood. Harewood went on to take his seat in House of Lords, first sitting in parliament in 1956.
The following year at the Aldeburgh Festival, Harewood met pianist, Maria Donata (Marion) Stein (1926–2014), daughter of Erwin Stein, one of Benjamin Britten's publishers. They married on 29 September 1949, witnessed by the king and queen at St Mark's, North Audley Street, London. Britten wrote an anthem for the wedding. Harewood and Marion has three sons together.
In 1951 Harewood began working at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden as a member of the board. He went on to work as a casting manager there from 1953-60.
In 1953 Lord Harewood teamed up with playwright, Ronald Duncan, to organise the Taw and Torridge Festival of the Arts in Devon. The festival showed Duncan’s plays, an opera by Britten and a musical composition by Britten and Peter Pears. Duncan was keen to form a theatre company committed to promoting and showing non-commercial plays like his own. This desire led to early meetings in 1954 between Duncan, Harewood, Britten and Oscar Lewenstein, the General Manager of the Royal Court Theatre.
The group went onto found the English Stage Company (ESC) in October 1954. Harewood declined the role of Chairman, which was filled by Neville Blond. He was nonetheless extremely active in the establishing of the ESC and a prominent figure throughout its first 20 years.
Harewood was a member of the ESC council and the Chairman of the Artistic committee from 1955-71. He formed a close partnerships with the first Artistic Director, George Devine, and his successor, William Gaskill. In 1956 Harewood implemented a BBC television broadcast of an excerpt from the ESC’s production of John Osbourne’s ‘Don’t Look Back in Anger’. The exposure caused a huge increase in ticket sales and the play went onto become the ESC's biggest success.
With a lifelong interest in football, from 1961 until his death Harewood was president of Leeds United Football Club. From 1963-72 he was President of the English Football Association, notably during the 1966 World Cup which England won.
Harewood was an experienced festival director. He directed the Leeds festival from 1958-74 and from 1961-65 he was the Artistic Director of both the Edinburgh Festival and the Adelaide Festival.
Harewood began a relationship with Patricia Tuckwell, sister of the horn-player Barry Tuckwell, and they had a son in 1964. He and Marion divorced in 1967. Harewood and Patricia were wedded on 31 July 1967 and lived together at Harewood House.
Throughout his career Harewood fulfilled many advisory roles. He served as artistic advisor to the New Philharmonia Orchestra from 1966-76. He was a member of the Arts Council from 1966-72 and sat on the advisory council of the BBC from 1969-77.
In 1969 Harewood returned to the Royal Opera House as director. In 1972 he moved on to the position of managing director at Sadler's Wells Opera. The company changed its name in 1974 to the English National Opera. In 1985 he stepped down as managing director to devote more time to running Harewood House. He remained as chairman of English National Opera from 1986-1995. In 1971 Harewood stepped down as chair of the ESC’s Artistic Committee to become president of the ESC. He remained in the position until his resignation in 1976 when he decided to focus on his work with English National Opera. At this time Harewood also contributed to the founding of Opera North in Leeds, becoming its first managing director in 1977.
His autobiography was published in 1981, ‘The Tongs and the Bones’. Harewood also contributed to cinema by chairing the British Board of Film Classification from 1985-97. In 1986 he was appointed Knight Commander of the British Empire and in 2010 he was appointed an Honorary Member of the Order of Australia for his services towards the arts in Australia.
Harewood died at his home, Harewood House, on 11 July 2011. His eldest son, David, succeeded as 8th Earl of Harewood.