PEN IN HAND

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXVI, Issue 80, 16 March 1936, Page 10

PEN IN HAND

Is your signature legible? A timely complaint comes from the Duke of Westminster on the discourtesy of correspondence that does not enable the receiver of a letter to know whether it comes from man, woman, child or firm. A Duke of Hamilton once had this brought home to him in a most commercial manner. As peers of the realm sign only their surnames, and he possessed three dukedoms—Hamilton, Chatelherault and Brandon—he had the habit of signing “Hamilton, Chat and Bran,” so it was not surprising that he received a letter from a firm of wine merchants using those names, with the title “Messrs.’’ before them. However, it is seldom that illegibility is put to such use as when an actor, dismissed by Sir Henry Irving, and realising that of the whole communication, only the signature was legible, used it as a free pass to the Lyseum Theatre for years!