Spencer: Is Major Alistair Gregory Based on a Real Person?

Directed by Pablo Larraín, ‘Spencer’ follows the story of Princess Diana for three days in the Christmas of 1991. With her marriage already in shambles and on the brink of collapse, Diana arrives at Sandringham with her heart and soul in knots. As she focuses on surviving the three days in the midst of the royal family, she also goes through a crisis where she has to reevaluate everything around her. She feels more and more suffocated in her life, which is made worse by the fact that she is constantly under scrutiny. The character who highlights the extent of this unsettling supervision is Equerry Major Alistair Gregory. But the character isn’t entirely what he is made out to be.

Alistair Gregory is a Fictional Presence in Spencer

While ‘Spencer’ has real characters at its center, the film itself remains a largely fictitious piece of work. It focuses on Diana’s psychological state and does so by exaggerating certain parts and completely imagining several things. For dramatic purposes, the film also takes creative license with the portrayal of some characters, and Alistair Gregory falls in that category. In real life, there is no person of such name to have worked at the royal household during Princess Diana’s time. While the position of an equerry is pretty real, the character itself is entirely made up.

During the time in which the film’s events are set, Air Marshal Sir David Walker held that position within the royal household. He served as Elizabeth II’s equerry from 1989 to 1992, so one could say that Alistair Gregory is loosely inspired by him. Walker remained with the queen’s staff for longer as he was promoted to the master of the household. His job required him to take care of the royal households, manage the staff, and make sure that everything was exactly how it needed to be for the royals, including in places like Sandringham.

In the movie, Gregory serves as a primary antagonist and becomes another turn of the noose around her neck, which seems to tighten with each day she spends in Sandringham. In real life, there is no evidence to suggest that Walker had a similar effect on her. While there is a good chance that they crossed each other’s paths, the man never really came into the picture, and Diana never specifically mentioned him in any context. This shows that whatever we see of Gregory in the movie is entirely made up by the creators of the film.

Alistair Gregory is More Complex Than a Villain

Despite the fictional nature of the character, the film relies on real things to give a semblance of reality to Gregory. For example, there is a good chance that he would have been in charge of keeping things running in Sandringham at the time, which would have included keeping an eye on all the royals so they would be properly taken care of. But there is nothing to suggest that he particularly hounded Diana by having left Anne Boleyn’s book for her or to have her curtains sewn shut. It is also not likely that he would have personally taken her weight, though the tradition of weighing the royals and their guests on their arrivals at and departure from Sandringham is real.

Another realistic part of the character is that he is deeply loyal to his job, which he puts above all else. So, even as he keeps circling Diana and continuously pokes at her, it is to steer her on the path that he feels is the right course of action for her and the royal household. While he repeatedly seems to overstep his bounds and infringes on Diana’s privacy while also making her more and more paranoid, to him, it is simply part of his job. He believes he is carrying out his duties, which is why, perhaps, he lacks the empathy that Diana needs at the moment and unwittingly becomes the villain of her story.

Read More: Is Spencer Based on the True Story of Princess Diana?