More Butlers Do It as London Embraces Incomes With Eight Digits

By Caroline Binham

April 9 (Bloomberg) -- There is a correct way to interrupt coitus, says Rick Fink, who runs a butler school at former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill's weekend mansion outside Oxford, England.

``A firm knock on the door, listen for any noises and wait for an order,'' Fink, 73, tells his students, dressed in traditional green aprons. ``Then address Sir, not the lady or any other companion, until spoken to.''

Demand for the buttling arts is rising in London, where Russian oligarchs and hedge-fund billionaires are employing servants in displays of status unrivaled since Victorian times. Across Chelsea, Mayfair and Knightsbridge ``gentlemen's gentlemen'' are decanting claret, ironing creases out of newspapers and even standing ready to pilot airplanes.

``The old-style butler and old money are both few and far between these days,'' said Sarah Dawkins, who runs the Guild of Professional English Butlers. ``What we're seeing is the ranks of the super-super-rich coming through, and that is a whole different ballgame.''

The best butlers earn as much as 70,000 pounds ($138,870) a year, twice as much as the average compensation for a software programmer in London, and get free board and lodging.

The number of butlers registered with Greycoat Placements, the servants' employment agency that is part of Empresaria Group Plc, has almost doubled to more than 5,000 over the past five years, Managing Director Stephanie Rough said.

While there are no reliable figures for the number of butlers in the U.K., the London-based Work Foundation estimates there are about 2 million people in domestic service in the country, the most since the Victorian era.

Hedge Funds, Russians

Supply is responding to demand, Rough said in her office a few hundred yards from Buckingham Palace. Hedge funds that employ butlers are a ``growth area,'' and there's been more demand from Russians, she said.

``Butlers are hired to simply get things done,'' said Sebastian Hirsch, who's been working for four years at a London- based investment firm that he declined to identify. ``But they're also used to impress clients and friends as a status symbol. For the newly wealthy, like Russians, who want an entrance to society, having a butler is the right choice.''

Hirsch said one of his butler friends flies his boss to destinations around the world in a private plane.

``Butlers are educating people as they know a lot more than we do'' about how to behave in high society, said Anatoliy Zaslavchik, head of corporate finance at Kiev, Ukraine-based investment firm Sincome Inc., who has had an English butler for ``years.''

Three Times Wealthier

Inner London is now three times wealthier than the rest of Europe, according to the European Union's statistics office. The wealth of the city has almost doubled in the past decade, driven by the ``commuter flow'' of non-residents, including the very rich, the agency said in a February report.

Rich expatriates want locally trained butlers and household help to create the true atmosphere of an English stately home, according to Sh4dow Security, which finds security and domestic staff for wealthy families.

However, a mansion and a butler do not an aristocrat make.

To address this, Greycoat has started an advisory business for the newly wealthy. The company also offers tips on how many staff to employ in what capacity and how to treat them.

It's just not done, for example, to invite servants to sit with you during a meal, offer them the use of your car or swimming pool when you're out of town, or to say ``thank you'' for every task performed, Greycoat said.

`A Way of Behaving'

``The employer will invariably step over the line at some point, and it is up to the employee to keep that division,'' Rough said. ``It's the one big thing we teach.''

Traditionally, the butler is the head of the household, responsible for the hiring and firing of other domestic staff.

Modern butlers have the additional task of mentoring their employers in the rules of English etiquette, such as referring to the ``lavatory'' when the boss uses the word ``toilet,'' or remarking upon how much better linen looks on a dining table instead of paper napkins.

``There is a way of behaving in certain circles, and the newly wealthy may not fully understand those ways,'' said Dawkins of the butlers' guild. ``Employers look to the butler not only to serve but to show them what should and shouldn't be done.''

At Ditchley Park, 70 miles northwest of London, Fink, a butler for more than 50 years, teaches the old-fashioned style of service. Students pay 7,900 pounds ($15,600) for a four-week course, and required reading is ``Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management'' (first published in 1861).

Samuel Tebby, a 21-year-old former ballet dancer, believes the course is worth the money, especially if he can land a place at Buckingham Palace's three-year butler trainee program.

``Working for the queen, you don't get paid that much money,'' he said. ``But afterwards, if you've got Buckingham Palace on your CV, you're really in demand.''

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=206...mp;refer=europe

Note:

I wonder....are there any Thai Butlers around, maybe Lady Butlers ?

LaoPo

Note:

I wonder....are there any Thai Butlers around, maybe Lady Butlers ?

LaoPo

Yeah, LP, ya mite get a katoey butler.......WOW!!!!

How would that grab ya? NICE...... hehehe

Note:

I wonder....are there any Thai Butlers around, maybe Lady Butlers ?

LaoPo

Yeah, LP, ya mite get a katoey butler.......WOW!!!!

How would that grab ya? NICE...... hehehe

Yeah a katoey butler would sure know hown to interrupt coitus "Okay hansum man, no more honey no more scuking <deleted>."

Anyhow what's all this fuss regarding eight figure salaries? My salary is currently eight figures as long as the ones to the right of the decimal point count.

Actually if we take my salary in local currency we are looking at nine figures easy. Now where's my bucking futler?

I wonder how they're taught to interrupt Max Mosely?

Note:

I wonder....are there any Thai Butlers around, maybe Lady Butlers ?

LaoPo

Yeah, LP, ya mite get a katoey butler.......WOW!!!!

How would that grab ya? NICE...... hehehe

Yeah a katoey butler would sure know hown to interrupt coitus "Okay hansum man, no more honey no more scuking <deleted>."

Anyhow what's all this fuss regarding eight figure salaries? My salary is currently eight figures as long as the ones to the right of the decimal point count.

Actually if we take my salary in local currency we are looking at nine figures easy. Now where's my bucking futler?

And the rest - 500 dong to the Baht - crazy money.

But when the bill for a modest meal (and in Ca Mau that's the best you'll eat) is 200,000 or more, makes you feel extravagant.

I have a confession to make. I am not really MrBoJangles but his Butler. MrBoJangles is far too much of a busy man to respond to your posts himself.

However, i can assure you that he takes time to read alot of your correspondence.

Got to go. I have to polish the handles on the Aston.

I always thought the correct way to interrupt coitus was to chuck a bucket of water over them.

Oh no, hang-on...

Note:

I wonder....are there any Thai Butlers around, maybe Lady Butlers ?

LaoPo

Yeah, LP, ya mite get a katoey butler.......WOW!!!!

How would that grab ya? NICE...... hehehe

And what would be wrong with a decent, very attractive, hard working and well educated and well mannered Katoey Butler ?

Rigth: nothing

Scots do wear kilts as well don't they ?

LaoPo

I cant think of a good reason for a butler to take it upon themselves to interrupt his master's coitus.

If the house is on fire, or under attack by hordes of screaming zombies its the butler's job to sort it out!

I cant think of a good reason for a butler to take it upon themselves to interrupt his master's coitus.

If the house is on fire, or under attack by hordes of screaming zombies its the butler's job to sort it out!

I can think of a dam_n good reason. If m'lady returns home unexpectedly early from visiting her mama in Bethlem,

I cant think of a good reason for a butler to take it upon themselves to interrupt his master's coitus.

If the house is on fire, or under attack by hordes of screaming zombies its the butler's job to sort it out!

I can think of a dam_n good reason. If m'lady returns home unexpectedly early from visiting her mama in Bethlem,

......."Then address Sir, not the lady or any other companion, until spoken to.''

LaoPo

I cant think of a good reason for a butler to take it upon themselves to interrupt his master's coitus.

If the house is on fire, or under attack by hordes of screaming zombies its the butler's job to sort it out!

Good point quiksilva! I can't think of a reason. Ask yourself, how many times in your life have you had to interrupt coitus? Either yours or someone elses!

I cant think of a good reason for a butler to take it upon themselves to interrupt his master's coitus.

If the house is on fire, or under attack by hordes of screaming zombies its the butler's job to sort it out!

Good point quiksilva! I can't think of a reason. Ask yourself, how many times in your life have you had to interrupt coitus? Either yours or someone elses!

...ask the butler...

LaoPo

Is it "what the butler saw"?

Is it "what the butler saw"?

the rules say:

``A firm knock on the door, listen for any noises and wait for an order,''

'Looking' is not in the book of the Butler...a Butler doesn't see, hear nor speak...

LaoPo

That's a great image. Are they wearing christmas hats?

That's a great image. Are they wearing christmas hats?

I didn't even notice that...thanks !

Yes, looks like Xmas hats.

LaoPo

Do you know where they are? ie What part of the world they're in?

Do you know where they are? ie What part of the world they're in?

I didn't, but after some GE Image research I found that here seems to be the "Three Wise Monkeys Pub" in Sydney. (555 George St Sydney CBD (cnr Liverpool St))

http://wolligoesdu.blogspot.com/2007/04/we...in-general.html

http://www.whereisthepub.org/content/view/63/51/

LaoPo

"Jeeves, the duke is a long time coming" said lady Partington-Smythe stirring her tea with the other hand.

I didn't, but after some GE Image research I found that here seems to be the "Three Wise Monkeys Pub" in Sydney. (555 George St Sydney CBD (cnr Liverpool St))

http://wolligoesdu.blogspot.com/2007/04/we...in-general.html

http://www.whereisthepub.org/content/view/63/51/

LaoPo

I know that place

I didn't, but after some GE Image research I found that here seems to be the "Three Wise Monkeys Pub" in Sydney. (555 George St Sydney CBD (cnr Liverpool St))

http://wolligoesdu.blogspot.com/2007/04/we...in-general.html

http://www.whereisthepub.org/content/view/63/51/

LaoPo

I know that place

Me too. Its an ok pub.

Do you know where they are? ie What part of the world they're in?

I didn't, but after some GE Image research I found that here seems to be the "Three Wise Monkeys Pub" in Sydney. (555 George St Sydney CBD (cnr Liverpool St))

http://wolligoesdu.blogspot.com/2007/04/we...in-general.html

http://www.whereisthepub.org/content/view/63/51/

LaoPo

Another example of Australian art, LaoPo.

Do you know where they are? ie What part of the world they're in?

I didn't, but after some GE Image research I found that here seems to be the "Three Wise Monkeys Pub" in Sydney. (555 George St Sydney CBD (cnr Liverpool St))

http://wolligoesdu.blogspot.com/2007/04/we...in-general.html

http://www.whereisthepub.org/content/view/63/51/

LaoPo

Another example of Australian art, LaoPo.

I fail to see what Coitus Interruptus has to do with those Sydney Wise Monkeys though unless one of them is a dressed up Butler...

LaoPo

We had in our student fraternity a guy who permanently managed to get girls pillowed. Not that we were jealous... ...but one foolproof way of interrupting his coitus was throwing dart arrows at his door....