Jeeves could be mistaken here. If Uncle George is related to Tom Travers, it is unlikely that he would be Bertie’s uncle (Tom is only an uncle by marriage), and it would be rather an odd coincidence for him to share the surname if they are not related. In any case, evidence elsewhere suggests that Uncle George must be a Wooster.

“Adrian Mulliner” (a.k.a. David Rosenbaum) summarises the evidence in the Great Aunt/Uncle Mystery thus:

1. In Right Ho, Jeeves (Penguin, 1983 — page 227), we read: “The years rolled away from her, and she was once more the Dahlia Wooster of the old yoicks-and-tantivy days."

Dahlia’s maiden name was Wooster — thus she is Bertie’s father’s sister. Of course, one could claim that not all Woosters are related.

2. In Very Good, Jeeves (Penguin — page 162 – The Love that Purifies), we read: “I now perceived that it belonged to a rather moth-eaten septuagenarian of the name of Anstruther, an old friend of Aunt Dahlia’s late father."

If Aunt Dahlia is Bertie’s father’s sister, her “late father” is also Bertie’s grandfather! Would he not refer to Anstruther as a friend of his own grandfather? Still, this is not conclusive.

3. Also in Very Good, Jeeves (Penguin — page 229 – The Ordeal of Young Tuppy), we read: “In coming to the decision to give this Witherspoon my custom, I had been actuated by several reasons, not counting the fact that having married Aunt Dahlia’s husband’s younger sister, Katherine, he is by way of being a sort of uncle of mine.”

If Tom is the blood relative, Katherine is also, and then Witherspoon is much more than “a sort of uncle”

4. In Jeeves in the Offing (Penguin, 1982 — page 73), we read:

“I could not forget that when I was at Malvern House, Bramley-on-Sea, this relative by marriage had often sent me postal orders sometimes for as much as ten bob.”

I take that “by marriage” settles the whole issue in a most satisfactory manner. In fact, we see now that Bertie was actually quite young — a stripling — when Tom and Dahlia married.

Regarding source 2, we are forced to say that since Bertie needs to explain why Anstruther was at Dahlia’s, he refers to Anstruther’s connection to Dahlia, leaving himself out of the picture, so as not to confuse things.

Just to round off the discussion, it is true that in Carry On, Jeeves in “Clustering Round Young Bingo” there is reference to Mr. George Travers, Bertie’s uncle, who “sorely oppressed him (Bertie) in his youth” This Uncle George also knows Tom, and this would seem to indicate that it is the Traverses to whom Bertie is related. However, I think that in light of the above proofs, we can safely conclude that George and Tom are not related, and George knows Tom solely through the Bertie connection. Finally, I would like to note that Bertie clearly has two “Uncles George”— in Very Good, Jeeves (Penguin — page 223 – Indian Summer of an Uncle), Bertie has to "save” Lord Yaxley — his uncle George Wooster — from a marriage which Aunt Agatha opposes (of course).

All is well until the final paragraph; there’s no reason why the young Bertie could not have been “sorely oppressed” by a courtesy uncle, so I disagree with the conclusion about George and Tom. The last “Finally” sentence is correct, of course. Note that George Travers in “Clustering Round Young Bingo” calls his own brother “Tom” and George Wooster/Lord Yaxley in “Indian Summer of an Uncle” calls his own sister “Agatha” without other specification. [NM]