Why were train porters in the US called "George"?

Paul Hibbs, Birmingham

• I have looked in four American slang dictionaries and none of them give this actual meaning. ?George? has a lot of meanings in US slang, including a general term of approval and to provoke sexually.

  The OED gives as one meaning of ?George?: ?Used as a familiar form of address to a stranger; spec. in Services? slang: an airman". In the US it also usd for an usher in a cinema. These uses seem to be connected to the phrase ?Let George do it?, ie leave it to someone else, but no one seems to know where this comes from.

  Do Paul Hibbs or Jeffrey Vagg have an actual source for the particular meaning and origin they quote?

  B C Rowe, London

• 'George' used to be the name given to an aicraft's autopilot; it might still be, for all I know.

  Pete Wigens, Stroud, UK