A touch of high society from George
Born with a silver spoon? No way. He was, though, gifted with a silver tongue that saw him through life until he passed away last week.
Known to most of his acquaintances as Society George, George Patterson Lees – product of Holy Cross Secondary, not Eton – was one of the city centre’s characters.
George, when gainfully employed, was in tailoring and the trade rubbed off on him. Bit of style, always hatted, bit of a blether and given to pontificating on various subjects over a glass. He was an authority on and in Rose Street’s hostelries and no slouch on Gilbert and Sullivan.
The funeral is at Mortonhall at 3.30pm tomorrow. An operatic blast and a ceremonial burning of the hat wouldn’t be out of place.
Trunk calling
Pigs might fly. Elephants can, for sure. How else did that life-size green one (only the white sleeves were missing) get atop of the centre-piece bar in the Dome?
Director of the George Street venue Brian Crawford explains: “We wanted to get involved in the Elephant Family, a charity supporting wildlife in east Africa, and a substantial donation secured one for ourselves. We’ve christened it Domenica.’’
Now who’d have thought of that! Rula Lenska will ‘’officially’’ name the beast in mid-September. A simple tusk, you’d imagine.
Afterwords . .
. . . from the grave and still a load of laughs, Chic Murray again: “I won’t say I was a slow developer but our teacher was quite pleased to have someone her own age in the class to talk to.”