By Rebecca Drew
INCREDIBLE black and white photographs have served up an insight into what life was like for those training to be a butler in 1950s Britain.
The series of monochrome shots show hopefuls learning how to fold napkins, carve poultry birds at the table and lay out a suit and shoes ready to be worn to standard under the guidance of Mr Samuel Bretson.
Other insightful images show Bretson outlining the rules of dinner service on a blackboard, teaching students the correct etiquette to serve food at the table and demonstrating how to iron the perfect crease into a pair of trousers.
Further crucial skills the servants, waitresses and valets are keen to learn at the school for butlers are how to deliver the important afternoon staple of a tray of tea into a room and how to load a gun.
Samuel Bretson was one of Britain’s best-known butlers.
Most of the class of 1950 were already servants, waitresses and valets who were attending evening classes to improve their knowledge of their trade in the hopes that a Bretson certificate would enable them to get a better job.
