The press and TV is full of items about ‘Dad’s Army’, the film of the BBC series which has just been released. Although the series was a comedy, a very successful and popular comedy, it actually told quite a serious story, that of the brave men, too old, too young, or unfit to join up and serve in the Second World War who did play their part in the conflict by joining the home defence, the Home Guard.
All the members of the Home Guard platoon in the series were old men, apart from a young lad and a ‘spiv’. Of the old men one was played as a dear old chap, mild and inoffensive who still tried his best despite his infirmities to play his part. This was Private Godfrey played by the actor Arnold Ripley. Godfrey, it turned out in the series had been a conscientious objector during the First World war, but in fact had served gallantly as a stretcher bearer, and one a medal.
In real life, Arnold Ripley, born William Arnold Ripley in 1896 in Bath, had served in both wars. Before the first war he had already become an actor but volunteered when he was eighteen and joined up when he was nineteen. He took part in the Battle of the Somme; he was discharged, injured in 1917 but was tortured by his experiences for life, although he concealed this, suffering as so many did in silence from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
He returned to the theatre and as well as performing he wrote at least seven plays too, the most famous being The Ghost Train. At the outbreak of the Second World war he joined up again and served in Intelligence, before being evacuated from Dunkirk, after which he was demobbed. During the rest of the war he continued to play his part, mostly as part of the real Home Guard. After the war he continued to write plays and act, but for the modern generation he is most well-known as private Godfrey.
William Arnold Ripley’s parents were Rosa Caroline who was born in Exeter in Devon, and William Robert who was born in Chelsea; in the first census Arnold appears in, 1901, his father was a gymnastic instructor. ten years later William was a sports outfitter, and the family had two lodgers who were both customs and excise officers.
William and Rosa, née Morrish, had married in 1894, and Arnold was their only son. William was born in 1872, and died at the age of sixty in 1931. Rosa, who was a year older than her husband, lived to the grand old age of eighty-six!
Here is an article about Arnold Ridley:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-35491036
Lois Elsden 