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Lord Rust
Lord Rust, as drawn by Matt Smith
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Surname of one of the older noble families in Ankh-Morpork, the most powerful city-state on the Sto Plains. The Rust family makes money by renting out slum property. Current leader: Lord Ronald Rust, or "Ronnie". He is the drawling kind of nobleman, the gentleman who looks so leisurely that he seems to be sleeping during important meetings. Lady Sybil Ramkin, who had dated him for a little while when they were younger, once remarked that Lord Ronald Rust was rather a wet fish. During the recent "almost war" with Klatch , ( the conflict reached a stage of serious football ) Lord Rust assumed command of the Ankh-Morpork forces.

Lord Rust was also commander - by strict order of the Patrician, of Ankh-Morpork's military contingent only - in Ankh's recent intervention in the war between Borogravia and Zlobenia. he was also, again by strict order, only second-in-command of the whole expedition - the command, as well as sole direction of the political and diplomatic contingent, went to another, vastly more able, person. The suspicion is there that another reason for selecting two commanders who could barely stand each other was partly for their own further education, and mainly to put a brake on any lingering ambitions that a Rust, in charge of a small army, might have entertained for the Patricianship.

One suspects that the young Terence Pratchett had trouble with someone named Ronald at school. Discworld Ronalds include the former King of Lancre, Ronald the Third, remembered in an unflattering bit of rhyming slang, Ronnie Jenks, a bully, Foul Ole Ron, raving mad with a smell that repels buzzards, and Lord Ronald Rust, with a less pleasant personality. When His Grace, Sir Samuel Vimes rails against the bloated and blighted aristocracy, he is thinking of the Hon. Ronnie.

Lord Rust is something of a cartoon of all the supercilious snobs of movie and story aristocracy, conflicted by greed and vanity on one hand, and patriotism and "the done thing" on the other. He is arrogant and ignorant and a very dangerous military commander; he expects huge casualties, and if they have to be his, c'est la guerre. In Jingo he even became the official leader of the city, but his military and political incompetence was soon exposed.

Annotation

Rust is very reminiscent, in speech, manner and description, of Lord Cardigan, who led the Light Brigade in that renowned headlong dash against Russian artillery at the Battle of Balaclava. (1854)

Cardigan was a typical son of privilege, a baying, drawling, affected dandy not over-burdened with brains, who effectively bought his way up the ladder of rank in the British Army and was one of the explicit reasons why Garnet Wolsey reformed the system to one of a completely professional officer class that would, at least in theory, be selected and promoted on merit only. (In practice, considerations such as background, social standing, education - not so much quality of, but type of - and whether or not you have an independent income over and above the official pay scale, are still important considerations in certain corps and regiments of the British Army today, in 2007...)