SNUBBING AN EX-KING

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXVI, Issue 3444, 12 November 1932, Page 6

SNUBBING AN EX-KING

CLERK AND HIS ERROR. INCIDENT OF WAR-TIME. An English ex-service man who once snubbed King Manoel, ex-ruler of Portugal, was one of the first to express his grief, last month, at the royal exile's tragic death. Mr. H. F. Trotman, of East Barnet, Herefordshire, related a strange war-time incident between King Manoel and himself. "I was night reception clerk at the Royal Automobile Club in Pall Mall towards the end of the war," Mr. Trotman said, "and at seven o'clock one morning a stranger appeared at the club dcor. I told him he could use the telephone. He seemed to want me to go through for him, but as I was suspicious I pointed to the telephone box and let him put his own call through while I stood watching him from the outside. "The visitor then said he wanted a Turkish bath. I said it was possible to have one if he satisfied me as to his bona fides. I bent over my reception book, and said, 'Let me have your name.' "When the man said, 'Don't you know it?' I retorted 'lf I did I wouldn't ask.' He said, 'King Manoel.' "I took another look, and the truth dawned on me that I had snubbed a king. I apologised, of course, and later he shook hands with me and gave me a present."