Even the bartenders at the British Embassy’s Bar 3100 were growing support for “Movember” Wednesday night at the Mo’Lympics, a prostate cancer fundraiser where men sprout moustaches through the month of November. British Deputy Head of Mission Philip Barton was unwittingly roped into captaining the embassy’s team, the Stiff Upper Lips, when he assumed his new title in April.
“I had a conversation with the ambassador on whether the droopy, slightly dodgy look was appropriate for a senior diplomat and we thought this was probably the best model,” he said, indicating his trimmer version of the handlebar moustache. “The English, slightly rakish, vaguely cattish look.”
The Embassy of Australia’s Maj. David A. McEvoy and Conditions of Service Officer Philip Hill were neck-and-neck in their fundraising that evening, having both cracked the $1,000 mark. The Movember movement began in Australia and is lesser known here in the United States, but Hill and McEvoy said more and more people are becoming aware, which is good for more than one reason.
“You walk around with a moustache and people think you’re a bit crazy, especially on public transport and things like that,” Hill said.
All in all, the embassies raised $18,718.
