CORPS OF COMMISSIONAIRES.

Manawatu Standard, Volume IV, Issue 222, 20 August 1931, Page 12

CORPS OF COMMISSIONAIRES.

UNIQUE INSTITUTION. Readers of the “Says Sergeant Murpky ’ gossip-bits which the Irish wit, A. P. Garland, regularly contributes to the Press, may sometimes wonder what sort of sergeant the funny imaginery character is (suys a London correspondent). Policeman or soldier or marine F Murphy is none of these. He is a commissionaire. There are thousands of Murphies in London—not so witty, of course, but most of them “characters,” whose experiences, reminiscences, and stories form happy material for the writer. Some of the big office buildings, banks, stores, hotels, and the like have their own commissionaries, or uniformed porters, or liftmen permanently employed, but most of them use members of the Corps of Commissionaires. These are a distinctive feature of London life. All are old sailors or soldiers.

The story of the corps is an interesting one. Its founder, in 1859, was the late Sir Edward Walter, whose experience was that “nobody would look at a soldier or a sailor because he was a thriftless old devil.”' Those were the days just after the Crimean War and the Indian Mutiny, when maimed and disabled men were left to get through, the rest of their days as best they could. Sir Edward Walter realised that there were many jobs in London .that needed a uniformed man, and so he founded the corps, but insisted that tevery man should put into its savings bank at the rate of Is a week. No man, he held, was any good unless he was prepared to stand on his own feet and put money by against old age and sickness. The corps was started with seven men. and to-day it numbers over 24 000. Its headquarters are in a court off the Strand, and there, any morning of the week, the visitor may see groups of uniformed men ready to fall-m for inspection, .„„ The commissionaires are in. eitner permanent or casual employment. Most of the “permanents are in trusted positions as porters, messengers, postal and inquiry clerks and caretakers. These all bear three stripes on their arms, and are called by other employees of the concerns they se ?"' e as “sergeant,” like Garlands Murphy. Others are in temporary employment, or are casully hired for the day. A 1 ! have the same sterling character. Every employer of a ‘permanent is given a guarantee by the headquarters of the corps as a recompense for possible dishonesty. This guarantee has been recently raised from £2o to£e>o made possible because during the last ten years there have been practically no claims under the guarantee, due to the exemplary conduct of the men. London, indeed, would lose a unique feature of its humanity if ever the corps were disbanded.