Lord Great Chamberlain

In the UK, the only officer of state whose position survives from Norman times; responsibilities include the arrangements for the opening of Parliament, assisting with the regalia at coronations, and organizing the ceremony when bishops and peers are created. The post is part-time and the symbols of the office are a white staff and key, which are carried on ceremonial occasions. In the middle ages, the King's Chamberlain often acted as the monarch's spokesperson in council and parliament. It remained a political appointment until 1924.

The Lord Great Chamberlain was originally the financial officer of the royal household but he now performs only a small number of ceremonial duties. At coronations he helps to invest the sovereign with the regalia; when the sovereign opens Parliament in person the Lord Great Chamberlain is responsible for the arrangements, including the appointment of a peer to carry the sword of state, and walks in the procession from the robing room. Until April 1965 he also controlled the Palace of Westminster and its precincts, but that authority now extends only to the robing room, with the staircase and ante-room adjoining, and to the royal gallery, and he shares control jointly over Westminster Hall and the Crypt Chapel with the Speakers of the two Houses.

The office of Lord Great Chamberlain was conferred by Henry I in 1133 upon Aubrey de Vere and his heirs, earls of Oxford, who held it more or less continuously until 1779 when it passed to the co-heiresses of Lord Willoughby d'Eresby. Today it is vested jointly in the Earl of Ancaster, the Marquess of Cholmondeley, and the Baron Carrington.