Don’t worry - we haven’t abandoned our Britclinics! We’ve just decided to hold them once a month rather than weekly, to give folks more time to gather questions together, and to leave more room for other posts.
The next formal Britclinic will be on Friday 25th July (the last Friday of the month) but if anyone has any burning questions that can’t wait that long, feel free to bung them in the comments section today and we’ll happily get back to you. 
Alex Beecroft
nicolegestalt
Ansley Vaughan
Fiona Glass
Jules Jones
Erastes
charliecochrane
Sharon Bidwell
hywelalyn
marcnobbs
merrymeet
geoffnelder
Kate Johnson
Stevie Woods
alexdraven
Sorry. Posted this on the last one yesterday, not knowing one would come up today.
I have a character: Edward Kilsby, Lord Withycombe, Fourth Baron Withycombe (a completely fictional title), RAF hero of the Great War.
His American secretary insists on calling him Lord Edward.
Is this acceptable? Should Edward correct him? What would be the proper address?
Also, how easily could Lord Withycombe’s jilted fiancee pass herself off as still engaged? She wouldn’t be received by the better houses, since she’s common.
If the lord is wanting to keep a completely formal relationship with his secretary (which is more than likely) he should be referred to as: Lord Kilsby, or Lord Withycombe not Lord Edward (since Edward is his first name), however he could also be Baron Withycombe.
I’m sure another member will be able to explain the differences much better then I so I will leave that at that at the present.
As for his fiancée, if she has been publicly jilted then it is very likely that all the important houses already know about it (news such as that tends to travel extremely fast).
Hope this helps!
I’m afraid I’m completely clueless when it comes to titles. I did a search on Debrett’s because they used to have advice on all that sort of thing, but their website only has etiquette advice now and I think you would probably have to buy one of their books (or at least reference it at a library) to find the answer. I’ll keep looking though.
Re the engagement - it’s possible that the break would be announced in the society pages of one of the big newspapers - The Times or the Daily Telegraph. And I think even as far back as the 20s and 30s there were society magazines or gossip magazines that would get hold of stories like that and print the details!
Angelia
Dorothy L Sayers’ Lord Peter Wimsey books might be useful to you here. They would have been written in a contemporary setting to where yours are set and might give you some flavour. He is generally referred to as ‘Lord Peter’, although his gentleman’s gentleman, Bunter, calls him My Lord, which would probably be the correct title.
Charlie
The relationship goes very informal just about as quickly as Edward can entice Charlie into his bed, or rather as soon as they get possessed by dead Egyptian lovers who borrow their bodies. The UST starts on page one. (It’s a m/m romance) As it stands, Charlie calls him Lord Edward or my lord (emphasis on the my) through all of it .
The idea of the details of the broken engagement being printed leads to another question: how likely would something like the Mirror be to take a woman’s side of the story? The chances would be higher if it’s really salacious and involves the prodigal only son of a noble house, who is also a war hero, yes?
I’m guessing here, but I suspect that the press back then was controlled almost exclusively by surprisingly upper-class men, so you might find even tabloid newspapers wouldn’t have been very sympathetic to the woman, sadly…
Angelia
Why not try searching some of the newspaper archives which are available? The Times has a fully searchable archive - the Mirror one is not up and running yet.
I’m not sure about bias - you’d need to find the source material.
Charlie
Angela, I’d agree that Lord Withycombe would be a more correct form of address, and that he should be corrected. In conversation, he’d be addressed as ‘my lord’; in reference, as Lord Withycombe. (”I am Lord Withycombe’s new secretary,” “My lord, here is your correspondence,” etc.) Barons aren’t members of the high peerage (they’re just a couple of steps above knights) so it really depends on his character as to how much formality he insists upon.
He might also be addressed by his military title: i.e. Wing Commander Withycombe, or more properly Wing Commander The Right Hon. Lord Withycombe.
But if the relationship does become more informal–especially with all that sexual tension around!–he might permit a more familiar address (perhaps even as a pet name from a lover?). His friends would probably already call him Withycombe; Edward would be for very close friends and family. He’d also be more likely to address his secretary by his surname, rather than his given name, at least to begin with.
There’s a really good explanation of styles and forms of address for all ranks of British peerage here: http://www.chinet.com/~laura/html/titles12.html It hasn’t been updated in a while; but then, neither has the peerage