Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(UK society) the odd-job man in a great house.

1883

Hansard 19 Apr. in Ware (1909) 256/1: Mr M’Coan asked as to the sentence upon George Gardiner, described as a tutor, charged with stealing a jug of beer and sentenced to six weeks’ imprisonment. Sir W. Harcourt, amid much laughter, explained that owing to the custom in large establishments of the odd man being called ‘the Usher of the Hall’, a position held by Gardiner, the writer of the newspaper paragraph had converted him into a tutor.