Sir John Griffin was the first and only press secretary to Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. He served her for 32 years, between 1959 and 1991. In Fleet Street he was known as “the bluff Major” — or, when asked questions he regarded as tiresome, as “the gruff Major”. The sobriquet was, however, bestowed in affection by those whose business it was to extract information. They respected his shrewd brain, and also knew him as a genial host when he entertained journalists and government press officers.

The Queen Mother’s household was a grand court, run in the Edwardian style, renowned for its hospitality, spirit of welcome and sense of fun. In one respect his appointment was something of a sinecure because the Queen Mother generated her own positive public relations image. However, he did have to handle the intense press interest in Princess Margaret, who, three years after her affair with the divorced Group Captain Peter Townsend, was still living with her mother.

His responses to media questions about the Princess were brief and he was given to old-fashioned formulas such as: “The Princess is a little under the weather.”

When, in April 1986, the Duchess of Windsor died in Paris, and the Queen Mother chose to attend Sandown races, in which Princess Anne was riding, Griffin fielded a flurry of calls from journalists by saying: “Her Majesty always attends this meeting. She was asked to go and she went. That is all there is to it.”

In 1960 he accompanied Princess Margaret and Lord Snowdon on their Caribbean honeymoon cruise, on board the Royal Yacht Britannia — and was thereafter nicknamed in court circles as “the royal gooseberry”.

Later he had to cope with speculation about the Snowdons’ marriage, peaking in 1976 after a Sunday newspaper ran photographs of the Princess and her boyfriend, Roddy Llewellyn, seated side by side on the island of Mustique (taken at least two years earlier, and cropped to excise the other members of the group). The publication of the photographs prompted the Snowdons to separate, and Griffin issued one of his brief statements: “A separation has been a possibility for some time and once the final decision had been reached, it was obviously better to implement it straight away.”

Arthur John Stewart Griffin, always known as John, was born in Claygate, Surrey, and brought up in Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) and Dorset. His father served in the Colonial Office and had postings to Africa.

Griffin was educated at Harrow — at Clarence House he was proud to be the only Old Harrovian in the otherwise solidly Old Etonian household — where he shone at various sports.

He joined up in November 1942, at 18, and was commissioned into the 24th Lancers, training in tank warfare. He was wounded in the D-Day landings. On his discharge from hospital and keen to return to the front he set off without orders to the Kent coast and hitched a lift in a logistical landing craft. Meanwhile, he was posted as a deserter, and notice for his arrest reached his regiment two weeks after he reported for duty.

The fighting was fierce, and because of the casualties suffered by the Royal Armoured Corps the 24th Lancers were disbanded to provide reinforcements for the survivors of the corps. Griffin transferred to The Queen’s Bays, arriving with them in Italy at the end of 1944. He fought in the Forlì and Faenza region, southeast of Bologna, and in the final battle of Argenta in April 1945, commanding a troop in the regiment’s A Squadron until the German surrender in May. He was described in the regimental records as a robust, cheerful and resourceful officer who gained the confidence of all ranks.

After the war Griffin decided to make a career of the Army. He was appointed ADC to the General Officer Commanding Anti-Aircraft Command, General Sir Ivor Thomas, and also served in Germany as regimental adjutant; as a staff captain at the headquarters of the 7th Armoured Division, Verden; and as the commander of C Squadron, The Queen’s Bays, in Jordan and Libya.

In 1956 he was seconded to the Queen Mother’s household as her equerry. She was, at that time, Colonel-in-Chief of his regiment. He spent two years at Clarence House, and on a royal visit to Australia met his future wife, Henrietta Montagu-Douglas-Scott, who was working in the office of the Governor-General. They were married in 1962. After his term as equerry ended Griffin returned briefly to his regiment as commander of A Squadron. But soldiering had lost its appeal and in 1959 he left the Army when he was recalled to Clarence House as press secretary.

In the late 1980s he had a series of misfortunes. First he damaged a knee ligament in a fall. Then he suffered a head injury when a chimney blown off the roof of Clarence House fell through a skylight into the hall. Finally, in May 1990, he had a stroke when lunching in the Clarence House garden with the Queen Mother. He never returned to work but in 1991 was appointed as an extra equerry to the Queen Mother, a position he held until her death in 2002. He was appointed MVO in 1967, CVO in 1974, and KCVO in 1990.

He and his wife lived in a grace-and-favour house in Bushy Park, Teddington.

Griffin’s wife died in 2008. He is survived by his two sons.

Sir John Griffin, KCVO, press secretary to Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, 1959-91, was born on February 20, 1924. He died on April 1, 2009, aged 85