Edgar Jessop
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An old Etonian who openly subscribed to the school’s initiation principles of whipping and libertinism, he carried his beliefs into the corporate world, where he found sympathy and support among contemporaries, and trepidation in those who served under him. Not that Sir Carruthers was a complete rotter of course, but even his mother refused to be seen in public with him. In his defence, he was fond of recalling his impoverished childhood. “We were so poor, the rainbow was in black and white. “However the iron fist with which he controlled his manufacturing and financial empire could very occasionally be cloaked in a velvet glove, and on the infrequent occasions when he chose to be other than a bumptious and merciless autocrat, he could positively ooze charm, to the point that those who knew him less than well, notably the wives of his senior employees, found his blandishments utterly flattering. If the mood took him, “the guv’nor” would commission a special function, be it a trip to Ascot or Epsom, where he kept a corporate box lavishly stocked with libations and exotic foods, or an extravagant banquet at a stately hotel or country mansion. One such concession to hedonism was the Spagforth Directors Summer Summit held at his private Hunting Lodge, “Squitters Relief”, a modest 3,500-acre patch in West Sussex. Here the invited guests dined on a variety of rare and endangered species slaughtered by the resident team of grouse beaters. Sir Carruthers was especially fond of baby Blue Wildebeest cooked in its own tears and had a chef flown in from his private safari park in Tanzania to prepare the Connochaetes Luxe sauce. After a gluttonous repast washed down by wines from Sir Carruthers’ Romanée Conti Vineyard in Cote de Nuits, Burgundy, those guests remaining awake were entertained by the Jessop Minstrels, a group of Edgar’s distant relatives from the Ozark Mountains. These itinerants had to be rounded up from caves, trees, stables and barns and shipped from USA in one of Sir Carruthers’ ex-Crimean War Prison Hulks. Unfortunately, several escaped following the performance and managed to infiltrate the British political and judicial system.