What Does a Butler Do?

A butler is the senior member of front of house staff in a private household. He or she receives guests on behalf of the principal, supervises the service of the dining room and drawing room, oversees the other staff who work in the principal areas of the house, cares for the cellar and the table, and holds the standards by which the household is known to itself. The position is one of responsibility rather than ceremony, and in a serious house it is closer to the management of a small institution than to anything the cinema has taught us to expect.

The shape of a butler's day

No two households keep the same rhythm, but the sequence below describes the working day as it is commonly ordered in an established private residence.

• Early morning: the principal rooms are checked and settled before the family appears. Newspapers, correspondence and the day's schedule are prepared.
• Morning: the staff of the house are briefed. Deliveries, contractors and outside suppliers are received and supervised.
• Midday: the table is prepared for luncheon. Guest arrangements for the evening are confirmed with the housekeeper and the chef.
• Afternoon: silver, glass, the cellar and the household inventories are attended to. Wardrobe duties are carried out where the household keeps no separate valet.
• Evening: guests are received, dinner is served or supervised, and the service of the household is directed throughout.
• Late: the house is secured, the following day is prepared, and the butler is the last figure to confirm that the residence is settled.

The duties in detail

The formal description of the position usually covers six heads. First, the reception of guests, which includes the arrival, the announcement, the seating and the departure, and which in a house of consequence extends to knowing the preferences of those who visit often. Second, table service, which covers the laying of the table, the sequence of service, the pairing and decanting of wine, and the supervision of any additional staff engaged for the occasion. Third, the cellar and the inventories, which means the purchase, the storage, the rotation and the record of wine, spirits, silver, glass and porcelain.

Fourth, the supervision of staff who work in the principal areas of the house, including footmen, houseman and any casual staff engaged for entertaining. Fifth, the wardrobe of the principal where no valet is kept, which covers pressing, packing, the care of shoes and the arrangement of dress for the day. Sixth, and least visible, the security and order of the residence: the locking of the house, the discretion of the staff, and the quiet handling of the difficulties that would otherwise reach the principal.

The measure of a butler is not what the household notices him doing. It is what the household never has to think about at all.

Butler, house manager, estate manager: the distinction

The three titles are often used interchangeably, and they should not be. The distinction matters when a household is drafting a position description, because it determines who reports to whom.

A small household may combine two of these in one appointment, and frequently does. A large one will keep them distinct, because the skills genuinely differ. A superb butler is not necessarily a capable estate manager, and asking one person to be both is the most common structural error we are called upon to correct.

Training and qualities

Formal training exists and is valuable, but it is the beginning of a career rather than the proof of one. The qualities that matter in the long service of a house are discretion, consistency, physical stamina, an even temperament under pressure, an exact memory for the preferences of others, and the judgement to know when to act without being asked and when to do nothing at all. These are cultivated over years in good houses under good supervision. No certificate substitutes for them.

Language is increasingly part of the requirement. A butler in an international household is expected to move between residences, to work alongside staff of several nationalities, and to receive guests whose customs differ from those of the house. Cultural fluency has become as practical a skill as service itself.