Question for my UK friends

[dreamflower]

I need a title for a person in a story I am working on, a crossover set in the late 1940s. I need a British character to have a minor title; it needs to be something sort of ancient and that would draw respect, but also not to be so high up that the person would get a lot of attention-- he'd be able to mostly maintain a low profile outside his home community, so I don't want him to be a Duke or anything like that.

So what kind of title would be suitable, and what would be the correct form of address for it? It does not actually need to be attached to a real place, as I will be inventing that.