Mainwaring's class pretensions stand in contrast to his Sergeant, who is genuinely upper middle class. Mainwaring is often bitter about Wilson's wealthy upbringing; being raised by a nanny, a father who held a career in "the City", and having attended public school, believing it made him "wet", while his own grammar school background is a positive attribute (Mainwaring went to Eastbourne Grammar School and Wilson went to Meadow Bridge public school). Mainwaring is an inverted snob who believes that it is the class system that prevents his promotion to the higher echelons of the Bank. By contrast, Wilson seems to have no social ambitions at all, is down to earth and easy going and seems amused by Mainwaring's hostility. Ironically, when Mainwaring tries to ingratiate himself with local potentates and dignitaries, they often turn out to be far more interested in talking to Wilson – much to Mainwaring's chagrin. This feeds Mainwaring's sense of social inferiority. This comes to a head when in "The Honourable Man" Wilson inherits a courtesy title and becomes the "Honourable" Arthur Wilson. Whilst Wilson resented this, Mainwaring became infuriated and did everything in his power to demonstrate that he outranks Wilson, even going to the lengths of telling Wilson when he was allowed to smoke.