William Hanson’s Manners Blog


Modern Mrs. Generals
14/07/2009, 11:50 pm
Filed under: Etiquette Across the Pond, Misc | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

In Charles Dickens’s novel Little Dorrit, we are introduced to a character entitled Mrs. General, who travels with the Dorrit family upon their newfound fortune in order to school the Dorrit sisters, Fanny and Amy, in The Done Thing and to ‘become at once the driver and guard of such vehicle through social mazes’. She is an etiquette consultant.

But since 1857, the field of protocol and etiquette has radically changed, shifted and budged to such a degree that Mrs. General would find shockingly informal and to which some people today find nauseatingly formal. Etiquette consultants have come in all sorts of shapes and sizes since Mrs. General, some old, some young, some reputable and some… not quite so reputable.

Founded in 1928, the Lucie Clayton Finishing School schooled girls in the art of modelling and grooming; the curriculum also included deportment and etiquette. Jean Broke-Smith (formerly the headmistress in the first two UK series of Ladette to Lady and now appears on various other television programmes) was once the principal of the school, which in the late 1960s found that less and less girls were enrolling to take up the ‘finishing’ aspect of the school. It reinvented itself into a business and secretarial college, although they do still offer etiquette training through The English Manner (read on for more).

In America, similar institutions soon appeared. The most notable one that is still around today (and thriving) is the Protocol School of Washington, which trains the willing in all aspects of modern manners, etiquette and protocol. Founded by Dorothea Johnson in 1988, the school aimed to train men and women to be professional etiquette and protocol instructors. Today, the company is run by Pamela Eyring and numbers have never proved a problem for the company.

Some may scoff as such organisations as out-dated and stuffy. They are welcome. But the evidence shows that people by their droves want to know what is right and there is no shortage, and probably (let’s hope) never will be, of those who wish to enhance their knowledge in the minefield of social, business and international protocol.

Here in Britain, The English Manner (if I say so myself) is the leading organisation when it comes to advising on social graces and correct procedure. Our clients (for those that don’t know, I am proud to be a consultant tutor for TEM) have included hotels in the Ritz Carlton, Orient Express and Four Seasons groups, as well as numerous multi-nationals and private households all over the world. Alexandra Messervy, who formerly worked for The Royal Household and subsequently Lucie Clayton, founded the English Manner in 2001. I was honoured to be asked to join the staff of tutors last year.

It has to be said that the market for etiquette is by far bigger in America: primarily because it’s a much bigger country but mainly, I believe, because a lot of Americans ‘get it’. They ‘get’ the fact that we need to be polite and civil to each other and so the market is better and the clients greater… in numbers. (Some of my American colleagues may read this and disagree with the ‘getting it’ bit!)

I write this sitting at my computer in Tennessee. I visited a bookshop yesterday to be pleasantly surprised that they even had a section headed ‘Etiquette’. You’d never see that in Britain (if there is a book shop with such a titled section – please, let me know!)

Perhaps now a word on the different types of protocol schooling available. There’s the conventional etiquette training, which most companies (including The English Manner) will be able to offer. This training can be given to individuals, to multi-nationals. We get a lot of companies contacting us saying that they have a few employees who need to brush up on their social skills (however good their business antennae may be). The training can include dining graces, how to introduce yourself to others, how to dress, how to write a proper letter – as I have said many times before etiquette ranges over all aspects of human life.

There’s also a strong market for training butlers and household managers and staff. Charles Macpherson Associates (based in Toronto and New York) trains pupils in the fine arts of hospitality and protocol before helping them find a placement.

These areas are all very ‘usual’, my favourite business venture/spin on the traditional etiquette training is this: The Sky Steward, who offer courses in ‘Jetiquette’. Truly remarkable. Good on them. I may pass on their details to a few of the air stewards that I have encountered on my trip here to the USA.

By nature of the size, it is fair to suspect that there are more etiquette trainers across the pond than there are in the UK (in fact, I can count the British ones on one hand – the good ones and the half-decent ones, anyway). An increasing number of etiquette experts are getting into the world of Twitter: primarily so we all know what we’re talking about when new areas of etiquette (social networking, etc) come up in conversations: the Americans have a cute little phrase of this modern etiquette, which is: ‘etiquette 2.0’.

Dotted around this article are links to the various organisations and individuals that I have mentioned; below are some links to other websites and various colleagues in the protocol field’s Twitter pages, for your delectation.

Whereas in the mid-nineteenth century Mrs General probably had the market covered (if not monopolised) it’s fair to say that what’s left now is Mrs General’s army.

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Links and Twitter Pages of Interest

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