This chapter covers my father's life as a servant between 1933 and 1938 working in various households including a period in the Irish Free State and working as a 'temp'


Chapter 3 Footman to the Rich

In May 1933 I started work at Castlehill, Engfield Green, Surrey about five miles from Windsor as a hallboy/footman at £28 p.a. with a uniform for waiting on the gentry plus one good suit for myself. I was working for the Hon. Henry and Mrs Tufton who were later to became Lord and Lady Hothfield. I had to share a bedroom with the footman and, since there was only one servant’s bathroom in the female servants’ quarters on the top of the house, I had to have my bath every Thursday. However, the food again was very good, four meals a day. Mrs Tufton was Jewish and was a member of Raeffel Company who, I understand, made a fortune in Christmas and birthday cards. Mr Tufton, when he became a Lord, inherited a large amount of land and at least two castles. Although the Tuftons were very rich, they did not have any children.

The Tuftons owned a number of flat race horses and they dedicated their lives to the flat racing in all its ways. They moved between the Ascot, Epsom and Goodwood race courses. They would talk about the ancestry of horses like other people would talk about the ancestry of their families. In the evening they played cards, always with a new pack, and sometimes they won or lost £50-£100 per night. At Ascot or Epsom they would host a large party for the week or ten days. We were allowed to go and watch the races and I saw Hyperion win the Derby when people there had put up to £5000 to win at 19 to 1. On that occasion the owner and the trainer stopped in the Tufton’s house. At those events I well remember the lovely food we had to serve, the champagne, sherry, whisky, brandy etc. and in the lounge was a great box of chocolates and plenty of cigarettes and cigars ‘in the house’. All of the gentry seemed to be happy with plenty of money. Some were banking Tory Members of Parliament with interest in the beer trade. On these days I used to work from 7:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. only stopping for eating, shaving and toilet. Sometimes I was so tired that I went to bed with my clothes on. I still remember, though, at the end of the dining room the lovely smell of brandy and cigars.

Often Mr and Mrs Tufton would go and stop at the homes of their friends and then the butler would tell the footman and me to put all costly knick knacks into the safe. While somebody had to stop to look after the house, we were often allowed to have a day or two to go and enjoy ourselves. I usually got on my bike and visited my family or Uncle Bert and Auntie Beat, who lived in Surrey, or spent the day in London. After six months, I received a rise from £28 to £30pa without having to ask for it. The butler told me that he would have liked to be rich and have a lot of servants, but as second best he was very happy to be a butler and live in a rich home with a feeling of wealth and worth around him. Generally speaking most butlers acted as ‘butler and valet’, but sometimes there was a butler and a separate valet.

On 1st May 1934 I left Castlehill and got the Green Line bus to London and I stopped near Marble Arch. I walked through Hyde Park and saw a Labour May Day demonstration with Jimmy Maxten MP speaking, he was the leader of the I.L.P., a small left-wing party mainly from Glasgow. I then went on with my suitcase to 27 Wilton Crescent, SW1 near Hyde Park and Belgrave Square. My new employer was Lady Mary Douglas, a widow who also had no children. She was the daughter of the Earl of Kenmare of Killarney, Ireland and all of his children got a title of Lady or Lord. She had seven inside servants, a chauffeur and a ‘small’ Rolls.

Mr Damer, her butler, had worked for them from before the 1914-19 war. He was himself like a gentleman. I was the footman at £35 per annum with a uniform and a suit. £1 was given to us by Mr Damer each week for our food and we had to organise our own groceries. Mr Damer told me that the late Mr Douglas sometimes would ring for him and when he came would try to have a row with him and told him so. He advised Mr Douglas to row with “my Lady” but Mr Douglas told him that she was no good at rowing. “You are the only one who can row with me”. Sometimes Mr Douglas would go out into the Mews and lay into Mr Morley, the chauffeur, while Mrs Morley and Mr Douglas’s servants listened to the ‘old sod’. Mr Damer told me that poor Morley used to quake with fear. At one point Mr Damer gave Mr Douglas his notice and a few home truths and told him that he was the most unpleasant employer in London. Lady Kenmare patched the trouble up and told Mr Douglas to apologise to their “fine retainer” and she insisted that he “telephone now in my presence to this loyal and good man”. When Mr Douglas died, he only left Mr Damer £500.

In the afternoons I would often go out and get a 1d ticket to Exhibition Road and go and see lectures or educational films for one hour from 3 to 4 p.m. in one of five museums. These were all free and of course, very informative. I would then get a 1d bus ticket back to my home, back to my uniform and my job to take ‘my lady’ her silver tea tray and organise our tea also. On my day off, I often went to the House of Commons gallery to listen to the debates. In June 1934, I was present at a mass meeting of Sir Oswald Mosley and his Blackshirts at the Olympia, Kensington. Mosley was a great orator and the hall had about 8,000 people there. Communists and socialists, who protested verbally against his ideas, were beaten up and kicked out of the hall by the Blackshirts, some without their trousers! The day after it happened it was headline news. Later on it became illegal to wear a political uniform.

That summer I went to Croydon Airport, which was then London’s airport, and had a flight for 5s on a small aeroplane. On Empire Day I went to Chatham and had the chance to look inside a submarine. I visited Portsmouth to see the Victory and went to other cities such as Winchester and Salisbury. I also started going to the theatre in London to watch good plays. I found that I could see Shakespeare’s plays at the Old Vic for 9d. Eventually I saw every Shakespeare play at least once and Hamlet nine times. Also that year I started a correspondence course to try for a Civil Service job and in 1935 I had to pay £3 to take exams near Piccadilly Circus, the exams went on for three days. There were 1,200 people trying for 150 jobs. I failed mainly because I had no knowledge of the sciences. Lady Douglas was quite agreeable for me to have the time off for the exams.

Our life was easy paced with Lady Douglas only carrying out a little entertaining for her family and friends. From time to time one Lord who was the aid to King George V used to come and tell her of the distress over a Mrs Simpson, an American friend of the Prince of Wales and how the last months of the King’s were painful to him.

In August 1934 Lady Douglas went on holiday with her maid. Mr Damer went on holiday and I had no work to do and so I went around London walking, by bus or underground for the whole month and I quite enjoyed myself. In the evenings I used to get into the House of Commons to listen to the debates. In 1935 Lady Douglas rented a house for August and September at Walmer, Kent facing the sea; taking her staff with her. I was able to do quite a lot of swimming and go by bus to visit local places of interest.

In June 1935 there was another election with Mr Baldwin’s National Government, effectively a Tory Government, winning with large majority. In the election the main arguments were; unemployment, housing and the special areas. After the election the Government did start to spend more on arms to face the threat of Hitler’s Government. In those days people in our country were frightened of war and we had what was called ‘appeasement’.