Titles and Forms of Address

John Tuffin asks an interesting question, commenting on Coronavirus Chronicle III:

“I have always been puzzled as to why Galahad and Freddie are Honourables, and not Lord Galahad and Lord Frederick. Lord Emsworth’s sisters are Lady Constance and Lady Julia, as one would expect. Is this explained anywhere?”

Titles and Forms of Address; A Guide to Their Correct Use  is as useful now as when it was published in 1918.

“Younger Sons of Earls.

Unlike the higher grades of the peerage, younger sons of earls are styled Honourable with their Christian and family names, and there is nothing to distinguish them from the sons of viscounts and barons.”

(Example: The Honourable Galahad Threepwood.)

“As remarked elsewhere, this title is never used in speech or letter-writing, excepting on the envelope. The younger sons of earls are call Mr, in conjunction with the Christian name.”

(Example: Mr Frederick Threepwood.)

“The title is never printed on visiting-cards, so that without inner knowledge it is difficult to recognise the rank. When it is desired to indicate it, however, a reference to the holder’s parentage would be permissible. Servants would announce the younger son of an earl as … “ Mr  Galahad Threepwood, for example.

PG Wodehouse never, so far as I’m aware, slipped up over the correct use of titles. It is to his credit as the whole thing is a social minefield. Take married daughters of earls.

”The daughter of an earl, in marrying a man of equal or higher rank than her own, shares her husband’s title. In all other cases she retains her own title of Lady with her Christian name, even if she marries the younger son of an earl, because, as stated elsewhere, all peers’ daughters rank one degree higher than younger sons of the same grade. In the event of marriage with the heir of a viscount or lesser peer, she is entitled, if she prefers it, to retain her own title until her husband succeeds to his peerage, because she actually keeps her own precedence until then. In such a case the chosen style should be ascertained. Marriage with a commoner does not alter her rank in any way – nor incidentally that of her husband. Our earl’s daughter, married to Mr Peter Green, would become The Lady Violet Green. She must never be called Lady Peter Green. Together they would be described as Mr Peter and The Lady Violet Green. Curiously enough, however, the daughter of an earl keeps her rank as such in the table of precedence if she marries out of the peerage, but exchanges it for that of her husband if she remains in it, even if it means descending several steps. Thus Lady Violet, having married Mr Peter Green, would go into dinner before a sister who had married a baron.”

It’s lucky that dinner is usually round a kitchen table. Often TF (Titled Folk) themselves make mistakes, sometimes ones they prefer not to correct.

Did I say minefield, I meant Quicksand.