History Main / RemittanceMan

In GenteelInterbellumSetting mysteries, he's usually back from Australia or South Africa (occasionally South America, the US or Canada) and most of the family would prefer that he'd stayed gone. The concept of the remittance man became pretty much obsolete with British entry into World War I, which gave all of the sons of the aristocracy something to do, so this trope probably will not appear in a work set after 1914. (The idea of the "remittance man" was made legally obsolete with the Administration of Estates Act of 1925, which did away with primogeniture.)

* ''Literature/WagonsWest'': Hugo was sent to America by his family in Britain as he was an embarrassment to the family, althro it was never stated what he did to deserve it. Once he was gainfully employed, he stopped accepting his remittance.

* In ''Film/MurderOnTheOrientExpress2017'', Bouc proudly says he's paid large sums to drunkenly carouse with passengers on the titular train on the condition he never sets foot in his family's offices. To explain his presence in the sequel, it turns out that was ''still'' too much of a nuisance.

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* Alice in Creator/AlanMoore's ''Lost Girls'' is a female example. Her family sent her to run their diamond mine in Africa in order to prevent her from causing any more sex scandals. Given that she managed to have a lesbian affair with her cook, it clearly didn't take. At the start of the story, she sells the mine before heading off to Austria.

* A couple of Literature/BertieWooster's friends. In "Jeeves and the Hard-Boiled Egg," he lends his apartment to Bicky Bickersteth (who's of the "wastrel" variety, naturally, living in a boarding house in New York when he's supposed to be farming in Colorado) so he can make his uncle think he's doing well in America. This [[GoneHorriblyRight works too well]] and the uncle decides to withdraw Bicky's allowance, since he clearly doesn't need it.

"That fop with the English Accent." An upper-crust younger [[BlueBlood son of an English lord]] with no prospect of inheriting, sent off to the Americas (or Australia, or South Africa, or anywhere on the map that happens to be painted [[http://manchesterhistorian.com/2013/painting-the-world-pink/ pink]] during the time period) to get him out of the way. Usually given a small allowance (the "remittance"), which isn't ''quite'' sufficient to support him in the way he is accustomed, but ''is'' enough to support him-- if he'll just pare back his standards a bit (which he usually won't). He also has an ingrained aversion to "working in trade", and he's not used to manual labor.

"That fop with the English Accent." An upper-crust younger [[BlueBlood son of an English lord]] with no prospect of inheriting, sent off to the Americas (or Australia, or South Africa, or anywhere on the map that happens to be painted [[http://manchesterhistorian.com/2013/painting-the-world-pink/ pink]] during the time period) to get him out of the way. Usually given a small allowance (the "remittance"), which isn't ''quite'' sufficient to support him in the way he is accustomed, but ''is'' enough to support him-- if he'll just pare back his standards a bit. He also has an ingrained aversion to "working in trade", and he's not used to manual labor.

"That fop with the English Accent." An upper-crust younger [[BlueBlood son of an English lord]] with no prospect of inheriting, sent off to the Americas (or Australia, or South Africa, or anywhere on the map that happens to be painted [[http://manchesterhistorian.com/2013/painting-the-world-pink/ pink]] during the time period) to get him out of the way. Usually given a small allowance (the "remittance"), that isn't ''quite'' sufficient to support him in the way he is accustomed but ''is'' enough to support him -- if he'll just pare back his standards a bit. He also has an ingrained aversion to "working in trade", and he's not used to manual labor.

* English Bob (played by Richard Harris) in ''Film/{{Unforgiven}}'' may or may not be a real RemittanceMan. But he certainly ''acts'' like one (possibly as protective coloration, to intimidate people from bushwhacking him).

* A Far West lawyer finds himself tasked with informing a RemittanceMan's family that their son has been hanged as a horse thief. He struggles with the necessity of doing his duty without causing scandal, until he finally sends the following telegram:

* In ''Film/MurderOnTheOrientExpress2017'', Bouc proudly says he's paid large sums to drunkenly carouse with passengers on the titular train on the condition he never sets foot in his family's offices.

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[[folder: Western Animation]]

[[folder: Real Life ]]

->''''So send me far from Lombard Street, and write me down a failure;\\

->''So send me far from Lombard Street, and write me down a failure;\\

He is one of us no longer -- let him be."
-->"The Rhyme of the Remittance Man", Robert W. Service

[[folder: Comic Books ]]
* One shows up along with a butler in the ComicBook/LuckyLuke story ''The Tenderfoot'', though he doesn't receive an allowance (he has a ranch he inherited from an uncle, who in turn was a good example of this trope, instead). It turns out that he is quite a bit more badass (and moral) than the Americans that decide to pick on him. At the story's conclusion, he rushes to prevent the townsfolk from giving another newcomer the same treatment he received... but joins right in when he realizes it's an acquaintance [[SeriousBusiness who uses the wrong club when golfing.]]

[[folder: Fan Works]]

[[folder: Film ]]

* In a rare case of the American counterpart to the Mountie version, there is Sheriff John T. Langston, played by John Cleese in the 1985 film ''Film/{{Silverado}}''.
* The title character of the British/American comedy ''The Sheriff of Fractured Jaw'' (1958). Fortunately he is also a gunsmith and GadgeteerGenius.
* ''Shout at the Devil'': An Irish-American poacher in turn of the century West Africa forcibly recruits a remittance man by having all of his money stolen, only to have the tables turned when the remittance man falls in love with his daughter. Based on a book by the same name, in which the young man leaves England [[AvertedTrope of his own volition]] because [[SpareToTheThrone he's not in line to inherit very much]] and thinks he can make good money in the Australian wool trade.
* In the Western ''One Foot In Hell'', Creator/DanOHerlihy plays a ConMan who passes himself off as this trope.
* In ''Film/MurderOnTheOrientExpress2017'', Bouc proudly says he's paid large sums to drunkenly carouse with passengers on the titular train on the condition he never sets foot in his family's offices.

* "Ginger Ted" of Somerset Maugham's story "The Vessel of Wrath" (filmed as ''The Beachcomber'') is explicitly described as one of these. He's a drunken lout who periodically receives sums to keep him from leaving the South Sea island where he resides. Despite his slovenly appearance, he sometimes evidences a high level of education.

* A Robert Louis Stevenson novella ''The Beach of Falesa'' has one in the character Case, although he's more competent (and malevolent) than most. The tale is set on a fictional island in the South Pacific and Case is along with protagonist, among the few white traders who live there and is a ruthless and amoral schemer. The protagonist describes how Case would sometimes discourse in an intelligent, cultured way and you can kind of tell from his speech that he was once a toff (i.e. calling the protagonist "old boy"). There's an amusing detail that while the other whites mispronounce the name of a French priest Galuchet as "Galoshes", Case can pronounce it correctly. Case also qualifies as an EvilColonialist type, since he uses magic tricks and some technology to trick the natives into thinking he has demonic powers, allowing him to have a great influence over them.
* A couple of Literature/BertieWooster's friends. In "Jeeves and the Hard-Boiled Egg," he lends his apartment to Bicky Bickersteth (who's of the "wastrel" variety, naturally, living in a boarding house in New York when he's supposed to be farming in Colorado) so he can make his uncle think he's doing well in America. This [[GoneHorriblyRight works too well]] and the uncle decides to withdraw Bicky's allowance, since he clearly doesn't need it.

* At the end of ''The Way We Live Now'' by Creator/AnthonyTrollope, the nasty cad Felix has racked up some very high gambling debts. In exchange for those being covered, he's sent to an enclave of British clergy in Germany and receives support there, and is basically told not to come back to England.

* Anthony Villiers in the eponymous series by Creator/AlexeiPanshin is a science-fictional example, though it's implied not that he's useless, but that [[FriendsAreChosenFamilyArent he simply doesn't get along with his family]].
* In another SF example, Cadman Weyland describes another member of the first interstellar expedition as "the ultimate remittance man" in Creator/LarryNiven's ''The Legacy of Heorot''.

* Once [[LandDownunder FourEcks]] is discovered (again) in ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'', there are occasional references to the younger sons of the Ankh-Morpork nobility being sent there to keep them out of trouble. In particular, in ''Literature/TheTruth'', Lord de Worde threatens his son William with this, although his definition of "trouble" is [[spoiler:meddling in his conspiracy to get the Patrician deposed and replaced with a puppet ruler]].
* The planet Surebleak in the Literature/LiadenUniverse series is a space opera equivalent to the frontier town in a Western, complete with MissKitty, a crusading sheriff, etc. In ''Dragon in Exile'', one of the characters who passes through is a similarly updated version of this trope: Vel Ter yo'Bern, a ne'er-do-well younger son of a Liaden clan who's on a perpetual tour through the galaxy, supported by an allowance from his family that's conditional on him never coming home.

* Moriarty's client in ''Literature/TheHoundOfTheDurbervilles'' is Jasper Stokes, who just came back from the Americas after inheriting a large estate. He's not just a wastrel, he's a sadistically cruel man who has hired goons beat his laborers to keep them in line (it's what he took away from reading German economists).
* Literature/{{Serpico}} claims to be a modern-day remittance man, with wealthy parents who pay anything to keep him away, to avoid revealing to his friends in Greenwich Village that he's actually a cop. They jokingly congratulate him on having such wise and wealthy parents.
* In Creator/HBeamPiper's science fiction novel ''Four-Day Planet'' it's speculated that "Bish" Ware, the town drunk on a backwater colonial planet, is one of these. (He's generally believed to be some sort of defrocked clergyman -- hence the nickname -- whose "ecclesiastical organization was paying him to stay out there in the boondocks where he wouldn't cause them further embarrassment".) In reality, [[spoiler: he's an extremely high ranking [[TheFederation Federation]] secret agent working a fifteen-year-old case against an interstellar outlaw.]]

* In ''Series/TheCrown2016'', Edward VIII was effectively exiled by [[UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfWindsor his family]] after he [[AbdicateTheThrone abdicated]] to marry his twice-divorced lover, Wallis Simpson, an event that still casts a shadow decades later. He survives off an allowance from his family and his presence in England is received ''very'' coldly by them.[[note]]His decidedly chummy relationship with ThoseWackyNazis up until the very eve of the war didn't help.[[/note]] As this is fairly accurately based on historical fact, it can also be taken as a Real Life example and TruthInTelevision.

* Once [[LandDownunder FourEcks]] is discovered (again) in ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'', there are occasional references to the younger sons of the Ankh-Morpork nobility being sent there to keep them out of trouble. In particular, in ''Literature/TheTruth'', Lord de Word threatens his son with this, although his definition of "trouble" is "[[spoiler:stop being an honest hardworking chap who wants to stop my conspiracy]]".

In GenteelInterbellumSetting mysteries, he's usually back from Australia or South Africa (occasionally South America, the US or Canada) and most of the family would prefer that he'd stayed gone.