THE UNTIDY GREAT

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 99, 24 October 1938, Page 16

THE UNTIDY GREAT

LAWRENCE JOINS THE LIST

Sir Ronald Storrs has been "debunking" certain legends about T, E. Lawrence, denying, among other things, that he was something like a Hollywood film star and mentioning that he was probably the untidiest officer of the war, says the "Manchester Guardian." We are accumulating a considerable body of evidence in favour of untidiness as being an attribute of the eminent. Only the other day it was mentioned that Sir Maurice Hankey could never cope with his puttees. Charles James Fox was one of the untidiest of men. Mrs. Gladstone had a good deal of trouble with "William" —he would go out with his hat on the wrong way foremost, and when he was making a speech his tie would wander round towards his ear. W. H. Smith mentioned that he had found the eighth Duke of Devonshire at Homburg dressed like a "seedy sailor." Lord Salisbury as a boy at Eton was taken to task for a "mischievous spirit of negligence" about his clothes, books, and other belongings. "His hat is generally reported as missing once in every forty-eight hours," lamented his tutor. Monckton Milnes, Lord Houghton, was described as attending the House of Lords in clothes for which no old clo' dealer would have given five shillings. Harcourt turned up at a Levee without his sword, but got out of the difficulty by announcing that he was a Quaker, like Bright, "for the day." Arthour Balfour was seen in the Lobby in frock-coat, grey flannel trousers, and brown canvas shoes.

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