COMMISSIONAIRE, the designation of an attendant, messenger or subordinate employee in hotels on the Continent of Europe, whose chief duty is to attend at railway stations, secure customers, take charge of their luggage, carry out the necessary formalities with respect to it and have it sent on to the hotel. They are also employed in Paris as street messengers, light porters, etc.
In England this is an association of pensioned soldiers of trustworthy character, founded in 1859 by Captain Sir Edward Walter, K.C.B. (1823 1904). Its headquarters are at 419a Strand, London, W.C. It was first started in a very small way, with the intention of pro viding occupation for none but wounded soldiers. The nucleus of the corps consisted of eight men. each of whom had lost a limb. The demand, however, for neat, uniformed, trusty men, to perform certain light duties, encouraged the founder to extend his idea, and the corps developed into a large self-supporting organization. In 1927 there were over 4,60o members of the corps, nearly 3,000 of whom served in London. There are local divisions of the corps at Belfast, Birmingham, Bristol, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester and Newcastle.
