'DEBRETT’ TELLS A STORY

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXVI, Issue 3442, 12 March 1932, Page 6

'DEBRETT’ TELLS A STORY

REGISTER OF DISTINGUISHED PEOPLE. 1932 VOLUME OF 1600 PAGES. “Every year for 219 years a new volume of ‘Debrett,’ that complete record of the names and families of the distinguished people of this country, has appeared with unfailing regularity,” says the Evening News of London. And each time it has been found necessary to increase its size until the volume for 1932 takes up 1604 pages. The new “Debrett” of “the peerage, baronetage, knightage, and compa'nionage” begins with ‘the following story. It says:— ,

“So often are the Christian names of newly-born children, as first sent in for ‘Debrett’ afterwards increased by the addition of one or even more names, baptismal or ‘pet,’ that it would appear as if the experience of a country registrar is of more frequent occurrence than might be supposed.

“O'ne day the registrar went to a house to register a birth, a house where there were already a numerous family. The mother said she could not possibly have it done then, as she had not found a name for the child.

“Oh! never mind about that. Let us find one for him. How about Sidney?”

' “She thought that would do very well.

“ ‘And Herbert?’ ‘Yes, that was very nice, too.’ “That was agreed on, and the entry in the birth book duly made.

Overlooked. “Leaving the house, the registrar had not gone far before the woman ran after him, shouting: ‘Come back, come back, I have another Sidney Herbert upstairs.’ “Which was the case, and she had entirely forgotten him. So after explaining to her that an entry once completed could not be altered, a compromise was made by adding the name ‘James.’ And as James the boy grew up, leaving the more imposing name to his elder brother.” The new honours recorded in the volume for the twelve months ended November 30, 1931, down to and including the rank of C.V.0., total over 345, exclusive of promotions to higher grades.

Among the recipients are found eight new peers, fourteen P.C.’s, ten baronets, eleven knights or dames of a knightly order, and 158 companions or commanders of various orders. Five peerages and six baronetcies have become extinct.