TWO ORIGINALS

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 61, 9 September 1937, Page 26

TWO ORIGINALS

FATHER BROWN AND , ■;'■■,.; .MR. smith . , ;' ;

•Father Brown).of Whose adventures G. K. Chesterton wrote so. wonderfully, has now his! innings. 'He,has written a book -on Chesterton,'; which will shortly/be■. published, says the- "Manchester Guardian:" "Many* do hot know that Chesterton's Father Brown is (with all allowances for Chestertonian transmutations) a living person. He is Monsignor John O'Connor, of St. Cuthbert's, Bradford, and he first met the author in 1904. Their friendship ripened,'and it was Father O'Connor who eventually instructed him before he became a Roman Catholic. The book will fill a number of the gaps in Chesterton's autobiography. ' • Another original of a well-known book who iS'-oniy known to a few as concerned with a. character in fiction has celebrated, his birthday, and no one knows which birthday it is. This is Mr. George Reeves-Smith, wht has been the managing director of the Savoy group of hotels since the beginning of the century. Arnold Bennett dedicated "Imperial Palace" to "George Reeves-Smith from one of the warmest of his admirers." Mr. ReevesSmith is believed to have given Ben-nett-some of the characteristics of the hero of the book. At the sale of the Bennett manuscript Mr. Reeves-Smith bought the manuscript of "Imperial Palace." His name is not in "Who's Who" and millions of Londoners have never heard of him; but among those Londoners whose ships have arrived in the West End and all the prosperous foreigners- who use London hotels his name is one of the permanent things in this shifting world. Although by all computation he is an octogenarian, he still carries his tall slim figure like a man of sixty, and he holds to his' Edwardian costume, always wearing a tall hat and morning coat. He was manager of the Hotel Victoria in the eighties, in 1893 became manager of the, Berkeley, and in 1900 managing director of the Savoy. His only service abroad was at Bordeaux in his young days, when he gained his remarkable knowledge of Bordeaux wines. He golfs and fishes and his quiet energy still keeps him at the head of his profession.