Upstairs, Downstairs
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Love downstairs 2

Rose met Gregory Wilmot, an Australian sheep farmer, during one of her afternoons off just before the war. He returned on leave in 1916 and the two were engaged – seeming to signal her future happiness and escape from service. Her joy was short-lived when, just a few months later, Gregory was reported killed in action. Rose was left a considerable amount of money in his will, but this was later lost when James Bellamy invested it in stocks and shares shortly before the Wall Street crash of 1929.

Edward first met Daisy in 1913 when she joined as under-houseparlourmaid. They enjoyed secret night-time liaisons in Edward's room before eventually marrying during one of Edward's leaves from the army during the war. Unusually for the time, the Bellamys allowed them to stay on in service as husband and wife. After the war, they set up home by themselves but fell on hard times and returned to Eaton Place. In 1930, when the house was sold off, they went to work for Georgina and her new husband as butler and head housemaid.

Hudson briefly fell in love with the young parlourmaid Lily in 1924 – she having mistaken his interest in her as a fatherlike affection. Not wishing to to hurt him, she slipped quietly away from Eaton Place.

"You haff been using zis?" The offbeat black-and-white episode A Suitable Marriage saw lugubrious footman Alfred falling in love with a wealthy German aristocrat – the unfortunately named Baron von Rimmer – who was staying at 165. The baron was in fact a spy, and flirted with Elizabeth in order to try to gain naval secrets from Richard. Discovered, the baron fled, dumping Elizabeth and taking Alfred with him instead! The episode was considered too controversial for American TV (at any time of the day or night), even though in Britain it got an afternoon repeat in 1973. Nevertheless, events in the episode never got to the stage shown in the lower photo, which is presumably the actors messing around!

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