Philip Moore - created Lord Moore of Wolvercote in 1986 - was plucked from the ranks of the civil service in 1966 to be a member of the Queen's secretariat and eventually, in 1977, her personal private secretary. Moore, who has died aged 88, was the first holder of that post who was not a courtier or of noble birth, and brought to it a freshness, a hard-earned experience of the world and a natural tact which the Queen valued.
The son of a British official in the former Indian Raj, indeed born out there, Philip was educated at the Dragon school, Oxford, and Cheltenham college. Awarded a classics exhibition to Brasenose College, Oxford, in 1940, he chose not to seek the taste of university life scholars were customarily allowed before war service and straightaway volunteered for the RAF. He trained as a navigator in Bomber Command and flew on a number of operations until, in 1942, his plane suffered a direct hit over France. As he was blown out of the wrecked fuselage, a parachute pack miraculously landed in his lap. He grabbed it and descended safely, the only member of the crew to survive. His luck held at first. He was sheltered by the local French resistance, but then was betrayed to the Germans and spent the next three years as a prisoner of war in Stalag Luft III, famous for its "wooden horse" escape plan - in which he helped - whereby a vaulting horse was kept in constant use by the British PoWs to mask the excavation of a tunnel under the barbed wire.
Taking up his place at Brasenose in 1945 he displayed outstanding sporting prowess. He was an Oxford blue in both rugby and hockey, also playing cricket for Oxfordshire and, in 1951, turning out for England in rugby. Meanwhile he had married Joan Greenop, or Joanna as she preferred, and was launched on his civil service career, initially in the Admiralty. Anticipating his subsequent progress in Buckingham Palace, he wound up as principal private secretary to the First Lord.
Next came service in the far east as a United Kingdom commissioner in Singapore during the difficult years (1961-65) when the newly created Malaysia was, in the face of fierce opposition from neighbouring powers, striving to become an independent state within the Commonwealth. Moore was a close friend of the Malaysian leader Lee Kuan Yew.
So, Moore went back to London and a desk in the Ministry of Defence until the royal summons came. But Commonwealth issues were again in his in-tray after he ascended to the top job in 1977, when both Australia and Canada were seeking to redefine their relationship with the crown. Moore's handling of what could have been drastic upsets was widely recognised to have been skilful, discreet and successful.
My own experience of his style was on a rather lower plane. In 1974, I had written a book of bogus memoirs, The Last Great Tram Race, which ended with an imaginary sports day at Balmoral for the crowned heads of Europe. I was there as a reporter. When an accident befell the Queen's allotted partner in the three-legged race I was summarily ordered to take his place. We won, but not before I had enjoyed a moment of trivial intimacy with the pretty young monarch. Rather belatedly, with the book already in the bookshops, my publishers wondered if we might be accused of lèse-majesté. Via a mutual acquaintance I got a discreet inquiry to Moore. He let us know that Her Majesty and Prince Philip had seen the item and were not unamused.
Moore retired at 65 and was rewarded with a life peerage. He took the territorial designation Wolvercote (a quarter of Oxford) in acknowledgment of his education there, though friends recalled that Wolvercote also boasted his favourite pub, the Trout. He continued to serve on a wide variety of public bodies, charities and schools, but as the years went by appreciated more and more life with Joanna in their grace-and-favour apartment in Hampton Court Palace, Surrey. He liked to show his visitors around the premises and point out where the ghost of Anne Boleyn might be seen.
He is survived by his wife, their two daughters, and his sister, the actor Daphne Field.