In 1879, Bigge fought in the
Anglo-Zulu War and was mentioned in despatches. In 1880, he was summoned to
Balmoral Castle by Queen Victoria to give her more information about the
Prince Imperial's death in the Zulu War, and he escorted the Empress Eugenie on her tour of Zululand to visit the site of her son's death. In 1881, he was appointed equerry-in-ordinary and then served as a groom-in-waiting and assistant private secretary to Queen Victoria. about to disembark from the
Royal Navy flotilla leader HMS Whirlwind at
Calais, 5 August 1918. With him are Lieutenant-General
George Henry Fowke, the Adjutant-General of the Expeditionary Force; Lord Stamfordham; Lieutenant-General
Joseph Asser; Major Edward Gerald Thompson, the ADC to Field Marshal Haig; Lieutenant Gush RN; and Rowland Baring, 2nd Earl of Cromer. Bigge was appointed
Private Secretary to
Queen Victoria in 1895 in succession to
Sir Henry Ponsonby and served until her death in January 1901. A couple of months later, he was appointed Private Secretary to her grandson,
the Duke of Cornwall and York, who was made Prince of Wales later that year. He continued to serve as such on the Prince's accession to the throne as King George V in 1910 and serving until his own death in 1931. and elevated to the peerage as
Baron Stamfordham, of Stamfordham in the County of Northumberland, in 1911. Lord Stamfordham was one of those who supported the King's decision to adopt
Windsor as the family name because of the keen anti-German feelings during the
First World War. On 17 July 1917, King George V "issued a proclamation declaring, "The Name of Windsor is to be borne by His Royal House and Family and Relinquishing the Use of All German Titles and Dignities". He persuaded the King to deny asylum to
Tsar Nicholas II and his family, who were thus forced to remain in
Russia and who were murdered by the
Bolsheviks. He interpreted the King's response "Bugger Bognor" as assent to the renaming of
Bognor as Bognor Regis. He introduced the
Duke of York (later
King George VI) to
Lionel Logue, who became the Duke's speech therapist. ==Family==