WOULD you be awfully embarrassed to find yourself a member of the same secret communist cell as your own butler? I suppose it’s a situation very few of us will ever need to worry about, but allegedly this was an etiquette poser which Alexander Gavin Henderson, second Baron Faringdon, had to negotiate on a regular basis.

The story goes that Henderson’s butler was the local CP convener, while the baron himself was branch secretary. Meetings were held at Buscot Park, the ancestral pile; after serving dinner, the gentleman’s gentleman would take the liberty of discreetly reminding His Lordship that his presence was required in the library this evening. 

Once the meeting began, Comrade Butler, in the chair, would instruct Comrade Henderson to read the minutes.