seaJane Posted 26 January , 2016 Share Posted 26 January , 2016 Article in today's Telegraph: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/film/dads-army/private-godfrey-arnold-ridley/ sJ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew Upton Posted 26 January , 2016 Share Posted 26 January , 2016 Bit contradictory though: "A constant enigma, his much vaunted experience in the Army department turned out to be a career in the tailoring section of the Civil Service Stores... he was the only one who spent the Great War as a fully fledged conscientious objector... only to be revealed subsequently as a recipient of the Miltary Medal for his outstanding bravery under fire as a member of the Army Medical Corps..." Also: "Not only was he the oldest member of the Walmington-on-Sea Home Guard platoon..." As an actor in the series this was true, but despite his apparent infirmities, as his character Godfrey he was younger than Jones . The episode "The Showing Up of Corporal Jones" has several bits that would seem to bear this out (Jones is aged 70 in 1940, so was born around 1870, which would fit his having "signed on as a drummer boy in 1884"), whilst in "All Is Safely Gathered In" Godfrey is described as "just before the Boer War. Mr Godfrey here was a dandy young buck of some twenty summers" (giving his year of birth as somewhere around the late 1870's). The rest of the paragraph seems to be making this the context of his character Godfrey, not as an actor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J Banning Posted 26 January , 2016 Share Posted 26 January , 2016 Arnold Ridley's wartime service is covered in good detail in Richard van Emden & Vic Piuk's 'Famous: 1914-1918'. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Famous-1914-1918-Richard-Van-Emden/dp/1848841973 Highly recommended. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
horrocks Posted 26 January , 2016 Share Posted 26 January , 2016 The relevant pages are here https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=7tw7BAAAQBAJ&pg=PA52&lpg=PA52&dq=arnold+ridley+somme&source=bl&ots=h4kWYiLQd-&sig=2LzXrAoiSc2zbKc9lzL5zjh46Is&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjdvsWup__JAhVLXRQKHbZ5DiA4ChDoAQg-MAQ#v=onepage&q=arnold%20ridley%20somme&f=false Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stoppage Drill Posted 26 January , 2016 Share Posted 26 January , 2016 It's amazing how many things the "Who is This ? " thread has covered, unnoticed by so many forumistas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seaJane Posted 26 January , 2016 Author Share Posted 26 January , 2016 I was aware of the connection even before Who Is This, but it's always intriguing to see what the media make of things. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sheldrake Posted 27 January , 2016 Share Posted 27 January , 2016 Article in today's Telegraph: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/film/dads-army/private-godfrey-arnold-ridley/ sJ You mean "promotional puff for the new film" The BBC TV film "we're Doomed, the Dds Army Storyr " treats Armold Ridley very sympathetically. His war service gets a mention, as does his play, The Ghost Train, which has been on Radio 4. "last chance to see: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b06t3m7t/were-doomed-the-dads-army-story John Lawrie's war service did not get a mention.He served in the HAC in 1917, I think at 3rd Ypres http://www.hac.org.uk/home/about-the-hac/history/world-war-1/some-notable-members-who-served-in-the-first-world/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trajan Posted 27 January , 2016 Share Posted 27 January , 2016 I doubt of the film will ever come over here but quite by chance, the younger lad was playing with the TV zapper last night trying to find his comedy channel and up popped BBC 'Entertainment' or whatever it is called now (the old BBC World) and there was an early edition of the eponymous TV show! Zapper immediately confiscated and younger lad sent to his room to do homework... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Black Posted 27 January , 2016 Share Posted 27 January , 2016 The WFA has his pension card displayed online. He was shot through his hand. http://www.westernfrontassociation.com/all-about-the-wfa/wfa-news-events/pension-records/the-wfa-preserves-a-major-great-war-archive-of-6-5-million-records.html#sthash.LHQ0rUWR.dpbs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghazala Posted 27 January , 2016 Share Posted 27 January , 2016 The relevant pages are here https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=7tw7BAAAQBAJ&pg=PA52&lpg=PA52&dq=arnold+ridley+somme&source=bl&ots=h4kWYiLQd-&sig=2LzXrAoiSc2zbKc9lzL5zjh46Is&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjdvsWup__JAhVLXRQKHbZ5DiA4ChDoAQg-MAQ#v=onepage&q=arnold%20ridley%20somme&f=false Thanks for that Toby. Very interesting. Will take a trip up to Bulls Road in June. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven Broomfield Posted 27 January , 2016 Share Posted 27 January , 2016 You mean "promotional puff for the new film" The BBC TV film "we're Doomed, the Dds Army Storyr " treats Armold Ridley very sympathetically. His war service gets a mention, as does his play, The Ghost Train, which has been on Radio 4. "last chance to see: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b06t3m7t/were-doomed-the-dads-army-story An excellent programme, if I might say so. I recorded it and, unusually, did not delete once watched - I will certainly watch it again soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted 27 January , 2016 Share Posted 27 January , 2016 Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trajan Posted 28 January , 2016 Share Posted 28 January , 2016 On BBC 'Entertainment' tonight - "19:30 - 20:05 / 28 Ocak 2016 Perşembe - Wartime sitcom.'Sons of the Sea' Private Walker converts Corporal Jones' old butcher's van into a combined armoured car, ambulance and troop carrier." Kids will be confined to room... My P.14 bayonets will be present to ensure that... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BereniceUK Posted 31 July , 2018 Share Posted 31 July , 2018 'Excusing Private Godfrey' is on BBC Radio 4extra for the next 29 days. First broadcast on Radio 4 in July 2012. "Poet Paul Henry, explores the true story of how Dad's Army's Private Godfrey, whom the nation took to its heart, belied an altogether more complex character: Arnold Ridley. Nearly a century after the outbreak of the First World War, one of its most enduring heroes lives on in the living rooms of millions." https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01kblth Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
towisuk Posted 4 August , 2018 Share Posted 4 August , 2018 (edited) I have a problem with this account of the fighting that Arnold Ridley was involved in, on the map drawn on page 56, Grid trench and Gird support are shown in completely the wrong area!! https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=7tw7BAAAQBAJ&pg=PA52&lpg=PA52&dq=arnold+ridley+somme&source=bl&ots=h4kWYiLQd-&sig=2LzXrAoiSc2zbKc9lzL5zjh46Is&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjdvsWup__JAhVLXRQKHbZ5DiA4ChDoAQg-MAQ#v=onepage&q=arnold ridley somme&f=false Take a look at where they are located on this section of trench map....regards Tom Edited 4 August , 2018 by towisuk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
horrocks Posted 4 August , 2018 Share Posted 4 August , 2018 No, nowhere near. He was below the bottom of your map, in front of Gueudecourt. I'll try and find a map to link to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
horrocks Posted 4 August , 2018 Share Posted 4 August , 2018 (edited) This is my take on the attack, and should definitively not be taken as gospel. I am sure that should I be far off course more attentive historians will intervene. My red line shows the assumed approximate course of the unknown German trench that the Somersets mistook for the main Gird line. The SLI attacked out of the sunken lane towards the Gird, as per the blue arrows. https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/side-by-side/#zoom=15&lat=50.0521&lon=2.8407&layers=101465188&right=BingHyb I walked across the field a couple of years ago, and the ground in the area of the presumed position of the trench in which Ridley was wounded was littered with shrapnel balls and spent and live ammunition. https://www.tobywebsterphotography.co.uk/photo33940179.html https://www.tobywebsterphotography.co.uk/photo33940181.html#photo https://www.tobywebsterphotography.co.uk/photo33945331.html#photo https://www.tobywebsterphotography.co.uk/photo33940180.html#photo Edited 4 August , 2018 by horrocks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
towisuk Posted 4 August , 2018 Share Posted 4 August , 2018 26 minutes ago, horrocks said: No, nowhere near. He was below the bottom of your map, in front of Gueudecourt. I'll try and find a map to link to. That's the map I refer to on page 56 of Richard Van Emdens book....he has drawn gird trench and gird support to the SOUTH of Gueudecourt..... so the map in the book is totally at odds with the official trench map...??? regards Tom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
horrocks Posted 4 August , 2018 Share Posted 4 August , 2018 I've just seen the map in the book, and it corresponds with my approximation. I suspect that the map shown in post #15 is a later map, showing the situation following the fall of Gueudecourt? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
towisuk Posted 4 August , 2018 Share Posted 4 August , 2018 That's my problem..Gird trench and Gird support are to the North west of Guedecourt...I believe the trench map and not the hand drawn one in the book....which makes the the dialogue on page 54 of the book out of kilter..... tell me how that fits in with the trenches mentioned but are not where they are shown on the one the book has... Tom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
horrocks Posted 4 August , 2018 Share Posted 4 August , 2018 Gird and Gird support continued from your trench map across the front of Gueudecourt at the time in question, which was immediately following the 15th Sepember Flers-Courcelette operation. I think that the area that you have shown Ridley as having been in was still in the NZ area of operations at that time? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
towisuk Posted 4 August , 2018 Share Posted 4 August , 2018 I maybe should have put "Ridley" in brackets with a question mark on the map section I posted...After looking through dozens of map sections from various sites I found this...... Which turned into Poum reserve trench later in the war... Thanks for tidying that up for me, much appreciated regards Tom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MBrockway Posted 4 August , 2018 Share Posted 4 August , 2018 (edited) Tom, Richard Van Emden's map is clearly based on this trench map from 10 Sep 1916, which was published rotated approx 45 degrees to the West to suit the tactical situation better ... A North arrow on Richard's map would have been a great help in reducing the confusion, but such matters are more in the hands of the editor/publisher than the author. As Horrocks has already pointed out GIRD TRENCH and GIRD SUPPORT extended to the south certainly as far as Point 64 in T.3.a above. Originally it formed a major German line heading through towards MORVAL Here's a version oriented to point north ... HTH Mark Remembering those of 14th (Light) Division and 41st Division who gave their lives fighting on this ground. A German machine gun at Point 91 in N.32.d.9.2 enfiladed the advance of 9/RB and 9/KRRC on 15 Sep 1916 causing very heavy losses. Search for 'Evelyn Southwell' to find out more. Edited 4 August , 2018 by MBrockway Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MBrockway Posted 4 August , 2018 Share Posted 4 August , 2018 26 minutes ago, towisuk said: I maybe should have put "Ridley" in brackets with a question mark on the map section I posted...After looking through dozens of map sections from various sites I found this...... Which turned into Poum reserve trench later in the war... Thanks for tidying that up for me, much appreciated regards Tom Sorry Tom - but you're still in the wrong place with these extracts. You are approx 1200yds too far to the North. Ridley was wounded at approx 57c.N.32.c.7.8 Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
towisuk Posted 5 August , 2018 Share Posted 5 August , 2018 Ah, of course!! rotating the map hardly helped to clarify the position amongst the books readers Mark..... I'm used to assuming that if no arrows are shown then North is to the top of the map section. At least in aerial photographs the arrow is drawn on to give the viewer a sense of direction. I should have stopped to look at the hand drawn map more closely. I'm over in Combles for a few days in October... and I'm hoping that I'll have some time in the itinerary to visit that area...taking a friend who can then put a "face" to the action in the area we've discussed... many thanks once again Tom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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