MOST people, and especially those who know him well, would have been delighted on learning Herbert Douglas Ellis OBE had received a Knighthood in the New Year Honours List.
The spontaneous round of applause that erupted throughout the hospitality areas at Villa Park on Monday as he walked through before the Swansea game was a fair reflection of the esteem and respect Sir Doug now engenders and was genuinely moving.
The Queen can look forward to meeting once again a character as quirky, irascible and yet, when the occasion demands, as disarmingly amenable as her husband.
No doubt HDE will present HRH with a signed copy of his book, a pair of Villa bed socks and a pin badge for her tiara.
He will also remind her of the time he broke her mother’s chair at Kensington Palace and that his nickname is “by royal appointment” courtesy of Princess Diana who, after being confronted at a charity gala, exclaimed “you’re the one they call Deadly aren’t you?”
By now you are deducing herein lies a far more complex figure than meets the eye and you would be correct.
Aside from being the most irritating of back-seat drivers he can be an imaginative and engaging weaver of myths and fables worthy of Aesop himself, although his tales, while embellished, can never be dispelled or scorned as they always contain a semblance of truth, albeit on occasion barely a grain.
He will, if given the opportunity, claim varying degrees of influence on inventing the “package holiday” (in the early days Berlusconi was his bagman), sliced bread and the bicycle kick.
The Premier League was his original concept as was the Internet, liposuction, the hula hoop, UNICEF and life on other planets.
If he so desired he could have succeeded as an opera star, matinee idol, brain surgeon, high court judge, golfer or nuclear physicist.
The following is a perfect example of his multi-tasking prowess.
Some years ago he underwent a four-hour heart bypass operation. After constant and compulsory retelling to concerned friends and family it became a record 19-hour ordeal conducted by three teams of world-renowned specialist surgeons working round the clock performing the most delicate fusions ever attempted.
Midway through such complicated procedures they became confused as to their next step and awoke the patient to request his guidance and appraisal of the MRI scans before concurring with his diagnosis, expressing their gratitude, re-anaesthetising and completing the job.
This, of course, is written with tongue in cheek and much affection, plus the knowledge that the cornerstone for his distinguished and varied business career was the total reluctance to hide his luminance under a bushel and the constant need for self-promotion.