UNIVERSAL AUNTS
Sir,-Universal Aunts is a company of.women who have an office at the cor rs of Knightsbridge and (Gif I rememtrectly) Brompton Street. They ‘ are all educated and capable women (some of them titled), and one I know well is a first-class engineer. To the office, calls comé from all parts of Eng. land for various jobs to be done; match-
ing a piece of silk, meeting a child at a railway station, driving a car from the place of purchase to the new owner’s home because she is not used to the new model, helping to cook and serve at @ special afternoon or evening, taking s child twice weekly from his home in. say, Kent, to London for treatment, or an elderly gentleman to and from his club. every afternoon because he is much too vague to be entrusted to taxisand so on. On :the other side of the ledgers, so to speak, the Universal Aunts have a list of (mostly) women who, having had no special training, are not qualified for a special job, yet need a little extra money. The Aunts put them in touch with prospective employers for a small fee. They are all delightful women with an easy efficiency which makes would-be employers and would-be employees fee) confident and happy. And they certainly do settle many problems for the folks who afe unable to attend to shopping
etc,
JEANNE BIDDULPH
(Auckland).
Sir,-"Universal -Aunts, Ltd.," was a firm which operated in London before the war. It comprised three or four enterprising women who could send to you a cook for that special dinner party, or someone to do the flowérs; someone to shampoo the dog or exercise it; pro vide a dance partner of either sex; shop for country people; book a table at a nightclub or do almost anything under the sun that didn’t actually come under the heading of a trade or profession. Their most valuable service was providing escorts for school children, at the beginning and end of term, who had to cross London from one station to another. If necessary they would send a reliable escort with a girl who was going to school on the Continent, or collect her when she came home. For this and other services the client paid all ex. penses involved, plus the fee suitable for the work done.
ENGLISHWOMAN
(Dunedin).
(Several other correspondents have kindly supplied similar information.-Ed. )
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19530703.2.12.6
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 29, Issue 729, 3 July 1953, Page 5
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403UNIVERSAL AUNTS New Zealand Listener, Volume 29, Issue 729, 3 July 1953, Page 5
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