Mrs. Alice Warren of Burin
(A servant girl at Winterholme)

Mrs. Warren began working as a servant at Winterholme in 1935 when she was a young girl of 18. She stayed until 1938.

“It was like the movie ‘Upstairs, Downstairs’, two completely different worlds. Upstairs you had the low life of the servants using the back staircase and sleeping together in a
dormitory-like room with no heat, while downstairs was
opulent, with a lot of entertaining”.

Because her sister-in-law from Burin was already working at Winterholme, Mrs. Warren applied for the job and was accepted. Her brother’s wife, who lived on Flower Hill, regarded the Rennies Mill Road mansion as Buckingham Palace.

At that time the staff consisted of...a cook, two housemaids, one furnace man/gardener and a chauffeur called Penny.
Mrs. Warren worked from 6 a.m to midnight, when her late night duties might consist of answering the phone and the doorbell. She was awakened every morning at 6 a.m. by an alarm clock
or buzzer and by 7 o’clock the maids were in the kitchen
wearing their uniforms, with caps, collars and cuffs
standing stiff because of starch and the ironing skills
of a local Chinese laundry.

Wages were $12 for the cook per month, $8 for the maids, plus bed and board. Pay later went up to between $12 and $35. Mrs. Warren was given a raise at one time when she confided in her employer that she couldn’t afford to take a holiday. Time off for the maids was Tuesday and Thursday evening when they has a 10 o’clock curfew. They had one ‘weekend’ off every second week, with a weekend consisting of one day from Saturday night to Sunday night.

Mrs. Winter, Sir Marmadukes’s second wife, was ladylike and modest. She made efforts to put the girls at their ease. When Mrs. Warren came down with the mumps she had someone sit with the young housemaid and brought her silk pajamas to wear. Occasionally Mrs. Winter would get the chauffeur to take the maids for a Sunday drive.

Sir Marmaduke was pleasant and might say to her,
“How are you dear”?

The decor at Winterholme was formal with heavy grey velvet draperies and candles in the form of a ‘W’. Against this somber background glowed brass and silver, which was the maids’ duty every Thursday and Friday to clean.

Even though Sir Marmaduke and Lady Winter were both in their seventies they entertained a lot.

In the Commission of Government days the governor’s wife, Lady Waldwyn and her son James were frequent visitors, with Lady Waldwyn over every day for afternoon tea...fancy sandwiches, cakes, scones and creams.

Other regulars included Harry and Alex Winter and Dean Rusted.

Even though Sir Marmaduke and Lady Winter were both in their seventies they entertained a lot.

The young housemaid would feel terror when she knew that a large crowd of people were coming to Winterholme for dinner. At one time she cleaned 32 partridges on her own for a party. A sit down dinner could sometimes have as many as seven courses.

The maids’ duties included washing pots, pans and coffee cups. They also looked after the fires and the grates and the Winters had a fireplace going in whatever room they sat. When the maids’ hands got sore from housework they used a combination of glycerin and rose water.

“I studied the cookbook like The Bible and also talked to other cooks about their techniques” said Mrs. Warren. She remembers Mrs. Winter requesting her to try some recipes from magazines such as ‘Good Housekeeping’.

Copy of Dress

Mrs. Warren tells a story of a maid making a perfect copy of one of Lady Winter’s dresses. The mistress saw it at church and said “she’s got my dress on”...she ran home and checked her closet finding her dress there. Lady Winter apologized and was very nice about it but never wore the dress again.

It was important to have original clothes and local merchants were asked if there were other copies made of their dresses.

Marmaduke wore his smoking jacket while relaxing at home.

Mrs. Warren’s name was Mary but he called her ‘Alice’ so
as not to mix her up with his wife whose name was Mary.
He sometimes called Lady Winter ‘dear Freida’. Gordon’s nickname was ‘Sunny’ Winter.

One of the Winter children told the maid that he was advised
by his parents not to play in the park because the children
there weren’t of his class.

Cooking for Guests

“I made everything myself including cream of celery soup,
cream of mushroom soup and clear soup which was also made from scratch. I hated clear soup, it was so hard.

I put egg whites in it, also crushed egg shells in cheesecloth
and put in the soup to clear it. I’d have to call on friends
for advice” said Mr. Warren.

On Sundays the Winters had fish and brewis, boiled one minute for breakfast. Dinner consisted of a roast with a meat and pie loaf. They bought rabbits and partridge by the case. The cook prepared pickles and jams in the fall of the year.

During the Christmas season children and grandchildren came
to Christmas dinner. Sir Marmaduke’s second wife had two children and he had four or five by his first wife. The dinner
was an elaborate meal with honey dew melon cut in half and notched. Soup was creamed lobster and there was usually
salmon as well as turkey with four to six different kinds of desserts...queen pudding and strawberry mousse.

Mrs. Warren polished apples for the trays which were placed on either end of the dinner table piled high with all kinds of fruit. There were finger bowls to wash hands before eating the fruit.

After dinner the men went into the drawing room to
enjoy their cigars and brandy.

For their daily cocktail hour Sir Marmaduke would mix cocktails himself and carry them into the library on a big tray.

With the coming of World War II important people visited
the house including naval captains. Sir Marmaduke is $
reported to have said “If the Pope would do something,
we might not have a war”.

During the war the servants disappeared and went to work for the Americans. Mrs. Warren herself left to get married.

Sir Marmaduke's Death

When Sir Marmaduke was terminally ill the circus wasn’t
allowed to perform in Bannerman Park because of the ‘very sick gentleman’ living nearby. At the same time construction had started on Monkstown Road and it was also halted over
the month he was sick.

“There was a hush over the whole house,” said Mrs. Warren “with doctors and specialists coming and going,” then we
heard Sir Marmaduke had passed away.

He was waked in the living room with his hands spread on the side under his face, like a praying child who had fallen asleep.
It took the funeral a half hour to walk past the house. All the
men had on dark clothes and hats.

“Looking back at my years of service at Winterholme, I
would say that working for the Winters was better
than average” finished Mrs. Warren.