Large Fierce Mammal

In his comment on Troy Zwicker’s The Sidearm of “Swank Syd” Lawford, published here a few days back, reader Simon Tanner kindly wrote, in part:

May I recommend a book called “The Last Englishman”, an autobiography of Lieut-Col.Alfred Daniel Wintle M.C. (lst the Royal Dragoons). c.1968

Copies will be few and far between and most likely overpriced when found but if you chance to find one I believe you would highly enjoy it.

My maternal grandfather’s commander in the Second war, he definitely fits the mould of the English officer/gentleman of the time. I suspect that he and Lawford were two of a kind.

On the Goode Mr. Tanner’s advisement, I have set the sights of the incomparable Mrs. LFM on the undertaking of locating and acquiring a copy of said tome, but in the mean time as she works her magick, you may read more of Col. Wintle in the Wikipedia article on his life, located here and supplied to me just this evening by Troy Zwicker when I wasn’t even looking for it. And then there’s this delightful docudrama based on the story of a remarkable man.

Heroes and Villains was presented as a series of documentary dramas that aired on BBC Television from 2007 to 2008. The show was carried in the U. S. by the Military Channel under the title of Warriors. Today we have the episode titled The Last Englishman, profiling the life of Colonel Wintle. Pour yourself something nice and spend the next hour here. Lastly, in case you are one of the unfortunate few I have come to know are afflicted by a glitch in some browsers preventing embedded videos from appearing, let alone playing, the direct link to YouTube for this video is here.