CIVIL SERVANTS

See Also: CLASS The College of Arms, Armorial Imagery; WHITEHALL; WHITEHALL DEPARTMENTS

Mandarins

See Also: CITRIC PERCH DROPPING; SAMUEL PEPYS; ROYAL RESIDENCES Somerset House

Senior Whitehall civil servants are known as mandarins . An unlikely but possible derivation of this usage may stem from Somerset House. The royal residence was rebuilt (1776-86) so that it could provide accommodation for several government bodies. The building s architect was Sir William Chambers. As a young man he had travelled to China. When he had settled in London in order to try to trying to establish himself as an architect, he had drawn upon his experience of living in the Middle Kingdom to design a number of Chinese-style buildings, of which Kew Pagoda is a surviving example.

Location: Whitehall, SW1A 2NS (blue, grey)

Sir Ron Dearing

Sir Ron Dearing (1930-2009) was a very able, self-effacing person who had a successful career as a Whitehall mandarin. He served in the Ministry of Power, the Treasury, and the Department of Trade & Industry. He possessed commonsense and judgement and became a problem-solver who dealt with seemingly intractable situations for successive governments.

Upon one occasion the administration of the day had to address a thorny set of issues that related to the working conditions of public sector employees. A seven-member Cabinet sub-committee was established to determine what should be done. The body was given a month within which it should devise a solution. It furnished one within a week. At the committee s first meeting Dearing s minister set out an approach that Sir Ron had supplied him with. By some mysterious means or other, the civil servant had also written the departmental papers that the other six Cabinet members present had come to the meeting with.

See Also: CARS The Chauffeured Chauffeur; STREET FURNITURE Pillar Boxes

Parking

For the most part, mandarins are suburban creatures. Many of them travel through the inner city snugly encased in trains that deposit them at Waterloo, Charing Cross, and Victoria railway stations. However, some are so bold as to drive to work.

In 1994 Peter Brooke the Heritage Secretary had the temerity to suggest that one of London s great open spaces should be properly enjoyed by the city s natives and visitors to it. The civil servants exercised their power and retained their privilege of parking their cars on Horse Guards Parade. Three years later they were vanquished.

Location: Horse Guards Parade, SW1A 2AX (orange, brown)

See Also: CARS Car Parks and Car Parking

The Treasury Solicitor

The barrister and career civil servant Sir Paul Jenkins (1954-2018) was the longest-serving head of the government s legal service. As such, he held the title of Treasury Solicitor. He was given to pointing that he did not work for the Treasury and that he was not a solicitor.

Website: www.gov.uk/government/organisations/treasury-solicitor-s-department

The Wall

Being sent to the Wall is a term for any mandarin who has upset a senior figure and been offered a job in North-East of England that he should accept if s/he wishes to continue his career. ( The Wall is a reference to Hadrian s Wall.)

See Also: ROMAN REMAINS

David Backhouse 2024