The “lady of the house” looked after all of the needs of Raj types coming up from what was called ‘Calcutta’ in those days. Kings, Queens, Aristocrats, top Raj diplomats and lastly, Tea Planters, all stayed here and were waited on hand and foot. In 1939, a group of local businessmen decided to acquire Ada Villa and turn it into a Private Limited Company hotel. One of the shareholders was a Mrs. Gertrude Bearpark, who hailed from Windermere in the NW region of England, called ‘The Lake District’. There was a Windermere Hotel there, set in Windermere Village, by Lake Windermere. Her associates loved the name, but she protested that using it would make it all very complicated, so refused to go along. Then, the “er” was taken out of “Windermere” and was replaced by an “a”. Windamere Hotel was born!