Baronet Postman

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 159, 6 July 1940, Page 1 (Supplement)

Baronet Postman

TWICE a day a baronet whose father and grandfather were Lord Mayors of London, tramps round Welwyn Garden City delivering mail—a 4 8/-a-week postman. Every day he looks for a letter addressed to himself from the War Office, telling him that his expert machine-gun knowledge may again be placed at the service of the country. Ht is on the Officers' Emergency Reserve. Sir Stuart Knill, third baronet of his line, is 54, a tall man, white-haired, with a gentle, cultured voice. He lives in a small house with his wife and daughter Gloriana, who is nearly three. His grandfather, Sir Stuart Knill, was Lord Mayor in 1892, and his father, S : r John, in 1909. The present baronet succeeded to the title in 1934.

"Two in the family are quite enough," he said recently. "I estimate that their services as Lord Mayor, sheriff, and alderman cost the family about £40,000. Our money went in family troubles ten years ago. Since then I have run antique businesses, held a stall at Caledonian Market, and even done Sunday street sweeping at six shillings a day in Chelsea. In the past seven months I have drawn the dole several times. I hated it, and was glad to get this job." I