A Note on British Titles of Rank with Special Reference to the Works of Evelyn Waugh (Essay‪)‬

Most Americans and nowadays some Britons are vague about the use of British titles. Since an untitled man may be referred to as either "Mr. Smith" or "Mr. John Smith," and his wife as "Mrs. Smith," "Mrs. John Smith," or "Mrs. Mary Smith," it is assumed that "Lord" and "Lady" may be used in the same indiscriminate way. This is not so: their use is clearly defined. "Lord Smith" may be anything from a marquess to a baron; "Lord John Smith" can only be the younger son of a duke or marquess. "Lady Smith" may be anything from a marchioness to the wife of a knight; "Lady Mary Smith" is the daughter of a duke, marquess, or earl; "Lady John Smith" is the wife of a younger son of a duke or marquess. Waugh, like other English novelists before him--Fielding, Jane Austen, Dickens, Thackeray, Trollope--is perfectly familiar with these usages and never makes a mistake with them; they provide useful clues to the social position of his characters. He would have been shocked by references in recent criticism and biography to "Lady Teresa Marchmain" and "Lady Diana Mosley," designations which those ladies could never have borne. A recent biography promotes Waugh's mother-in-law, the Honourable Mrs. Aubrey Herbert, to "Lady Herbert," and demotes Waugh's schoolfellow, Lord Molson, to "Lord Hugh Molson," thus depriving him of his seat in the House of Lords; as the younger son of a duke or marquess, "Lord Hugh" could only have been a commoner. It is true that these matters of nomenclature can be complex. Yet after centuries of use, it is not likely that they will be abandoned in Britain. Serious readers of Waugh may find the following notes useful. A study of the relevant pages in the annual Whitaker's Almanack, listing the current holders of peerages, baronetcies, and knighthoods, would be useful, as would Simon Winchester's Their Noble Lordships (London: Faber & Faber, 1981; New York: Random House, 1982) and Cyril Hankinson, My Forty Years with Debrett (London: Robert Hale, 1963).