“FINEST MAN I EVER MET ”

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVI, Issue 21380, 24 June 1939, Page 18

“FINEST MAN I EVER MET ”

EGDAR WALLACE’S BUTLER REMEMBERS (Special —By Air Mail) LONDON. June 3. Flowers were placed this week on the grave of Edgar Wallace, at Bourne End. Buckinghamshire, near his old home, by Robert Downs, Wallace’s former butler. He comes from Maidenhead regularly to visit the grave, and his flowers are the only ones ever put there. Mr Downs, who is 62 years old, comes of a family of butlers. But since his master’s death. Robert has no heart for his old profession. He is now an inspector of gas meters. He began work as a handy boy at Chalklands, Wallace’s home at Bourne Encl, and became more friend than servant to him. Always Wallace wanted Robert near him. and only a short time before his death he asked him to bring his dressing-gown and tea, sure indications that he was going to write. Mr Downs was affectionately known 1 Wallace as the “Tea-Taster.” No one else was allowed to make pot after pot when Wallace was in a writing mood. “When the chief died " Mr Downs said. “I lost my best friend. Really, he spoiled me from taking another butler’s post Wheiever we travelled I went first-class like himself. If ever I was in doubt or trouble lie would always help me out. He was the finest man I have ever met. “I remember him ” he said, "because it is the memory of him that inspires i.ie and keens me going."