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PS - confusion is my fault because I meant all along 'hot water tank', not heater.

Dear elle ,I have just seen your question re Tichbourne case, if nobody has answered it , it was a famous case from the late 1800s ama n tried to claim to be the long lost heir to a title and fortune .It went to court and he lost. It was said that he was a butcher who had been tutored by a gang to appear to be a member of the aristocracy. I think that they made a film of it.

Thank you , pleydell, for answering!
Do you know, though, how that tied in to the "Man on the Clapham omnibus" phrase?
This is what I am trying to discover?

Elle, try that Wikipedia link

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The man on the Clapham omnibus

hope it works

Hello, Elle!
Pleydell is bang on.
The phrase was first used by a lawyer (Bowen?) In the Tichborne Claimant case.
There is an entry in Brewer's about the Tichborne Claimant.

Hello, Elle,
I am leaning towards a deep red colour for my door, with white facings. There is a Donegal green shade, too. The young ones are going for dark blue, the colours of their football team.
Decisions!
Pa-rum pum pum pum!

Hi, Rusty!
I was just being lazy not looking up that reference for myself! It was very kind of pleydell to come to the rescue! I'm still puzzled though as to why that particular phrase was chosen?
I have looked up Donegal green - it is a lovely colour and would be very appropriate given that you come from there!
But a deep red sounds good too - and you said before that you fancied red.
As you say......decisions.....!
Now for a surprise!
I have just checked my emails...you will never guess from whom I have heard?
Rose! as in Rose Wild from The Times!
She tells me that she switched off the Feedback auto-acknowledgement by mistake instead of her personal one. And that was why I had no response to my emails! (of course I'd sent my email after yours as I'd written directly to RR first.)
She apologised for the confusion.
Wasn't that nice of her to 'write' and explain?
I am impressed!

Hello, Elle!
Well done, Rose!
Very nice indeed of her.
Wonder if you will get a mention in her column if it appears on Saturday?
As I understand it, Charles Bowen the lawyer, invented the phrase during the case. I think Arthur Orton was the claimant.
And the phrase came into use in legal circles.
The reds I fancy do not have names but codes.
Deep reds.

Rusty, Londonism rears its (ugly?) head in today's Times Quick Cryptic.

What proportion of restaurant reviews (in the Guardian on Saturdays, for instance) are of establishments outside London? I haven't kept a count, but would guess that it's about 1 in 10.