Our own Downtown Abbey: Upstairs, downstairs at Rideau Hall

It was that casual, he says. That was Roy on his way.

As he watched him go, Alan Partridge did not know that he, too, would be heading to Canada to work in the vice-regal household within a year.

Roy Partridges first job on arrival in April 1946 was stewards room boy serving meals to the often cranky senior servants who werent shy about giving him a cuff or a few sharp words if the service wasnt up to their standards. Over the next five years, he would move up the ranks to second footman serving prime ministers and presidents, war heroes, celebrities and royalty all before his 20th birthday.

Just about a year after the family and staff had settled in to Rideau Hall, a staff member who had suffered frostbite during the war decided that Canada was no place for him and returned to England. That left an opening. Alan Partridge, the second youngest son of the Partridge family, sailed off to join his brother. The job had been arranged by Lady Alexander, who wrote Roys parents to say it would be a good idea if he had an older brother to keep him company.

When Alan arrived at the train station in Ottawa in 1947, he was greeted by his younger brother and a chauffeur.

I was wondering when you were getting here, Roy told him.

Change had been in the air before Alexanders appointment to replace the highly respected Lord Athlone, governor general from 1940 to 1946. By 1945, the still controversial idea of appointing a Canadian to the post of governor general was being widely discussed, but after historian G.M. Trevelyan turned down prime minister William Lyon Mackenzie Kings offer of the job, the search turned to England, according to R.H. Hubbards Rideau Hall: An Illustrated History of Government House, Ottawa.

In 1946, Alexander, who had been commander-in-chief of the Middle East during the Second World War and later supreme commander in the Mediterranean theatre, was appointed to the job.

Friendly and modest, he had an enormous charm and a boyish curiosity about everything, both of which stood him in good stead in Canada, wrote Hubbard.

Alex, as he was known, was a younger son of the 4th Earl of Caledon and the grandson of an officer who had been stationed at Quebec in the 19th century. His wife, Lady Alexander, the former Lady Margaret Diana Bingham, was the daughter of the Earl of Lucan. They arrived in Canada with three children and adopted a daughter during their time at Rideau Hall.

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Our own Downtown Abbey: Upstairs, downstairs at Rideau Hall