Reading P G Wodehouse is a source of great pleasure to me but it has a serious angle. It, subliminally, provides education on titles and forms of address and he doesn’t put a foot wrong.
The brother, sisters and children of Clarence, 9th Earl of Emsworth, are accurately labelled and the correct distinction made between the way in which they speak to each other and Beach, say, addresses them.
This accuracy does not prevail in the Press. When I was an oil futures broker, Lord Browne was often quoted on Bloomberg News. It was a matter of Bloomberg house style, my journalist friend sadly told me, that he was always referred to as Lord John Browne.
TV programmes contain mistakes too. On What’s My Line a panellist was always incorrectly titled Lady Isobel Barnett. She was the wife of a Knight not the daughter of an Earl a mistake she, perhaps, did not care to correct.
I have never needed an Order of Precedence. At home, dinner guests group themselves round the kitchen table. But if I did, Burke’s Peerage sets it all out, starting with The Queen and running through the card finishing at 171, younger sons of Knights Bachelor. (Younger sons of Peers make it at number 109.)
It can be a minefield. How to address an envelope to the divorced wife of a retired Suffragan Bishop? A tricky one, so reach for Titles and Forms of Address first published by A & C Black in 1918. This slim volume puts you on the right track, although it is weak on divorce which was less frequent a century ago.
There is now a further, serious complication. Hereditary titles must be “proved” by the Crown Office, a section of the Ministry of Justice. Many holders of hereditary titles do not do this and indeed their families may not have done it for a few generations. Some institutions, namely Buckingham Palace, do not recognise unproved titles. This may be a source of concern if you expect to be made a High Sherriff, DL, HML or asked round for dinner.
Just imagine the indignity for even the younger son of an Irish peer, shuffling into the dining room in the wake of a Knight Bachelor. The procedure for proving titles is set out on the College of Arms website. It is not complicated but you will need a lot of Birth, Marriage and Death certificates. Nevertheless, it has defeated my family for three generations.
Once proved, the title is entered on the Roll of the Peerage. This may be read on the College of Arms website and here is the link, updated to 1st April 2015.
http://www.college-of-arms.gov.uk/images/downloads/Roll%20of%20the%20Peerage.pdf
I’m likely an insufferable pedant when it comes to Correct Form.
Auntie Beeb, of course, ought to be exemplary; though, alas, the Corporation is stuffed to the gills with staff who are ignorant, in in the true sense, of proper etiquette, the Nobility, Gentry etc.
Inter alia, I believe we ( younger sons of peers that is, even the sons of life peers) are entitled to stand at the bar of the House of Commons – not that I have ever done so.
Francis
I am not sure of my ground but I think Irish Peers and Privy Councillors may be entitled to sit on the steps of the throne in the Upper House. I was not aware that either heirs or their brothers could stand at the bar in the Commons, unless it is to order a drink.
Christopher
On reflection, perhaps it is at the bar of the Hose of Lords where we can stand, rather than the one in the House of Commons. I remember being told that there was a bar somewhere at which one could stand when my father was installed as a peer in 1959.There is a great deal of bobbing up and down and taking off of hats as I recall the event itself.
Francis
Francis,
In 1959, my great, half-uncle, George was Garter King of Arms, so very likely he orchestrated your father’s bobbing up and down. He was a stickler for protocol. The House of Lords does have a bar, colloquially known as Annie’s Bar, but if you reflect again, it is on the steps of the throne in the Lords where you may be allowed to roost. I think it really depends on the doorman on duty as to whether you are allowed this privilege.
Christopher