Goodbye Clive Dunn, thanks for the laughs

[salymap]

Another friend of mine, sadly now gone, lived near Thetford, and belonged to a sort of fan club for the programme. I believe as it ws filmed there [see esrlier post from someone] they had a yearly 'party' forfans and the cast, or those that were left.

Barry really enjoyed it and I wish I could remember all he told me about it. His other enthusiasm was for John Peel and he visited him severaltimes at Peel Acres. He had a busy and responsible job and they were relaxing days out.

[mercia]

I see the Battle of Omdurman which Cpl. Jones often mutters about was on 2 September 1898... the "Mad Mahdi" etc etc...

I think your dates are more accurate than mine. wikipedia seems to have the full biography

Fictional biography

Jones was born in 1870 in Walmington-on-Sea, and he joined the army as a drummer boy in 1884. Thereafter, he served in five military campaigns — the Gordon Relief Expedition to the Sudan (1884–1885), the Anglo-Egyptian Reconquest of the Sudan (1896–1899), the Boer War (1899–1901) and the First World War (1914–1918). During his service on the Western Front, he was known as the Mad Bomber, due to his inclination to throw grenades madly. He was discharged from the army in 1916. He also once formed part of a Guard of Honour for Queen Victoria. Occasionally he mentions fighting the Pathans in the North-West Frontier (he is probably referring to either the Second or the Third Anglo-Afghan War). During the episode Battle of the Giants! Jones gets an attack of Malaria, which he probably picked up during his service in Africa.

[Ferretfancy]

I'm probably at the age of 77 the only one on these pages whose father served as a 17 year old in South Africa during the Boer War. He later served in India before leaving the Army, and signed up again in 1914, having married in 1912. I was a late arrival in 1935.

It was quite an experience as a child, listening to Dad's sometimes rather fanciful stories about life in what is now Pakistan on station below the Khyber Pass, not so very different from the Carry On movie!
Perhaps Corporal Jones wasn't far of the mark.

[mercia]

I'm probably at the age of 77 the only one on these pages whose father served as a 17 year old in South Africa during the Boer War. He later served in India before leaving the Army, and signed up again in 1914, having married in 1912.

as Radio 3 might say ....................... amazing ....................

[Hornspieler]

I'm probably at the age of 77 the only one on these pages whose father served as a 17 year old in South Africa during the Boer War. He later served in India before leaving the Army, and signed up again in 1914, having married in 1912. I was a late arrival in 1935.

It was quite an experience as a child, listening to Dad's sometimes rather fanciful stories about life in what is now Pakistan on station below the Khyber Pass, not so very different from the Carry On movie!
Perhaps Corporal Jones wasn't far of the mark.

Fantastic, Ferret!
My father also served in India from 1908. Then via Mesopotamia (where he contracted sunstroke and had to be iced down for 24 hours) - on to The Dead Sea (where he sank like a brick and had to be pulled out by his pals), Galipoli (where he was wounded by a sniper's bullet and hospitalised for six months). Returning to duty at Paschendale, he was awarded the Croix-de-Guerre (he never told us why) and he lived to the age of 93!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croix_de_guerre_(Belgium)#Award_statute

His memories of those days in India gave us endless pleasure' - names, places, events. He wrote it all down for us in his own hand in his mid 80s.
Those events were indellibly stencilled on his brain seventy five years later, but he couldn't remember when he last had a cup of tea.

What a strange thing memory is. You and I must get it all into the record while we are still able.

HS

[Ferretfancy]

Hornspieler,
Thanks for that, I'm afraid my father didn't live quite so long, he died in 1964 aged 81. I wish I had asked him more questions, because of course I wouldn't be here if he had not survived WW!. Both the friends he signed up with were killed in action.

Dad was a gunner, an ordinary soldier, but he told me about his tiger hunting experiences, all fiction of course. Apparently the trick was to hunt at night with a powerful torch. When you saw the tiger's eyes glowing in the dark, you aimed between them and fired. At first this technique was a great success, but after a while the tigers got wise, and went round in pairs with one eye shut.

[amateur51]

Hornspieler,
Thanks for that, I'm afraid my father didn't live quite so long, he died in 1964 aged 81. I wish I had asked him more questions, because of course I wouldn't be here if he had not survived WW!. Both the friends he signed up with were killed in action.

Dad was a gunner, an ordinary soldier, but he told me about his tiger hunting experiences, all fiction of course. Apparently the trick was to hunt at night with a powerful torch. When you saw the tiger's eyes glowing in the dark, you aimed between them and fired. At first this technique was a great success, but after a while the tigers got wise, and went round in pairs with one eye shut.

Lovely, Ferret

[mercia]

Apparently the trick was to hunt at night with a powerful torch. When you saw the tiger's eyes glowing in the dark, you aimed between them and fired. At first this technique was a great success, but after a while the tigers got wise, and went round in pairs with one eye shut.

that gave me a good laugh. thanks

a shaggy cat story

[Nick Armstrong]

At first this technique was a great success, but after a while the tigers got wise, and went round in pairs with one eye shut.

They don't tell 'em like that any more!

Reminds one of the one eye'd cat / cat walking backwards / pencil sharpener feline gags...

[Hornspieler]

that gave me a good laugh. thanks

a shaggy cat story

To get back to the thread:

My father joined the Home Guard in 1940 and was immediately commissioned as a Captain.

He enjoyed Dad's Army hugely and told us that there certainly were a few Corporal Joneses and Private Walkers in his unit and although equipment was in short supply, training was very vigourous and at times quite dangerous. No harm in portraying those men for a bit of light comedy, but the job was serious and, after a day's work, very tiring.

(Unlike 'Allo, 'Allo, which was very insulting to a lot of brave people who risked torture and death to save the lives of many of our airmen)

HS (Please Captain, can I be excused?)

BTW If we don't get a lot more contributions on this forum, We're doomed, doomed!

[mercia]

We're doomed, doomed!

I read somewhere that when the writers first came up with the idea of Dad's Army they approached various actors to see if they were interested, including John Laurie, whose first reaction to the project apparently was "it's doomed, doomed" - hence the catchphrase

probably apocryphal

[salymap]

All I mostly remember from the Home Guard when I was a child in WW2 'Put that light out' If you let the cat out through a barely open door they would spot it :

[Ferretfancy]

Lime Grove Studios had a wonderfully old fashioned lift, with a long perforated metal strip in the shaft which apparently counted the floors. Coming down one lunch time we were all crammed in with John Laurie, who must have been in one of the studios for an interview. Suddenly the strip snapped and cascaded down on the roof as we came to an abrupt stop on the ground floor -you can guess what he said!

[salymap]

Lime Grove Studios had a wonderfully old fashioned lift, with a long perforated metal strip in the shaft which apparently counted the floors. Coming down one lunch time we were all crammed in with John Laurie, who must have been in one of the studios for an interview. Suddenly the strip snapped and cascaded down on the roof as we came to an abrupt stop on the ground floor -you can guess what he said!

I should think they 'lived' their characters Ferret Wonderful story