Mea Culpa: Sir Surname and assorted lords, ladies and dames

Questions of style and usage in last week’s Independent

‘Look, one’s not going to make this a Forsyth saga, one will just call you Sir Brucie’ (PA)

We briefly referred to the top civil servant in the foreign office as “Sir McDonald” last week. Russell Clarke wrote to say that it reminded him of teaching in France during the Falklands conflict when the local Nice-Matin newspaper “kept talking about Sir Pym and Sir Nott”.

British title conventions are arbitrary, but The Independent’s style is that knights are referred to by their first name at second mention. So Sir Simon McDonald when he first appears in the story, and Sir Simon after that.

The same goes for dames. Dame Rosie Winterton followed by Dame Rosie. Peers are Lord Mandelson throughout, although I think Peter Mandelson at first mention and then Lord Mandelson makes it easier for the reader. For no good reason we say Baroness Smith to start with and Lady Smith thereafter, although again I prefer Angela Smith, usually with a job description after her name, “Labour leader in the House of Lords”, followed by Lady Smith.