Copyright © 2011 Kanda Gaigo Alumni Association(KGAA). All rights reserved.
Peter Stanbury, the butler, left British Hills three years after the opening. After Peter departed British Hills, we had one more butler join us. And after he left too, a decision was made to stop having more butlers.
The Chairman, Mr. Ryuji Sano, decided, "It's okay, John's there, he can take care of it – no problem!" Actually, when Peter was on holiday or wasn't there, I took care of it anyway. So, it didn't matter. In addition to serve as a hospitality manager, I took the role of the butler, and took up also the post of protocol officer. Taking care of British Embassy was also my role.
I worked with five different ambassadors during my time in British Hills for 16 years. Sir David Wright was very precise in what he did. I went to pick the ambassador up from Shirakawa station. He got in the car, turned around and said, "I'm here John. What's my schedule? I will do as you tell me." I've earned the ambassador's trust and fulfilled my responsibility.
We've always got the “Ambassadors' Cup” at British Hills. We had the great pleasure of hosting Peter Pan Foundation whose honorary president was Princesses Diana. So, we always kept the venue as an option in case the Embassy was involved with any large events.
We were given that privilege to have British Hills be used as an extension of the Embassy far away from Tokyo. It was a privilege for the British Hills to be put in that class, as a home for the Embassy.
We got sponsorship from Jaguar, the British car manufacturer. I formed a partnership with a gentleman called David Bloom who was the President of Jaguar Japan.
I approached him and said, "Look, we're British Hills. Why can't we have a Jaguar?" Unfortunately, the first attempt failed. However, at the second attempt we were successful and we received a brand new Jaguar XJS every year. Jaguar would never give you a car just like that. But they did it for us!
At British Hills, Jaguar used to be parked outside the Manor House, and was used for pickups and deliveries of British ambassadors and other VIPs. If our guests were interested in that, we taught what a Jaguar was about, and what kind of car Jaguar was. It was a good and fruitful collaboration for both British Hills and Jaguar. (8/9)