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In the summer of 1915 the oppressive, red-brick walls of Jellalabad Barracks near the centre of Taunton were an unwelcoming introduction to army life. Just a few days before, Arnold Ridley had enlisted in the Somerset Light Infantry as Private number 20481. It was his second attempt to join the army but a broken toe that had been badly set had quashed his military ambitions the year before.

Twelve months on, the huge losses suffered on the Western Front presented a very different story. As Ridley said: 鈥淭he physical perfection required of would-be infantrymen was very much a thing of the past鈥�.

Born and raised in Bath, this son of Somerset had never left home before and after being kitted out in Taunton he soon found himself stationed in Plymouth. Years later he admitted to being wretchedly homesick, having to cope with a 鈥榮adistic鈥� Regimental Sergeant Major and facing the prospect that he may never survive the horrors of trench warfare.

In one episode of the TV series which made him famous, Ridley鈥檚 鈥楧ad鈥檚 Army鈥� character is revealed to have been a conscientious objector in World War One. When the news is broken, Private Godfrey has to face the wrath of the blustering and unsympathetic Captain Mainwaring. Only later is it revealed to the Platoon that Godfrey had in fact been a stretcher-barer in the trenches, saved lives on the Somme and been awarded the Military Medal.

In a classic case of art imitating life, we now know that Ridley, the young actor-cum-soldier, had indeed displayed remarkable courage in reality. In 1916 the now Lance Corporal was engaged in hand-to-hand fighting with German soldiers, receiving a bayonet wound to his hand and groin as well as a fractured skull after being hit on the head with a rifle butt. He was badly wounded and left abandoned for days behind the uncaptured enemy front line. When he was eventually taken to a field hospital, he woke one night to find himself being sewn into his sheet. The staff had assumed that he had died during the night

The cost to his health and well-being was enormous; he was shell-shocked, suffered blackouts and would have terrifying nightmares for the rest of his life. In a sad twist, he was unsuccessfully recommended for the Distinguished Conduct Medal for his actions leading a group of British men back through No-Man鈥檚 Land to the relative safety of the Allied lines.

Six decades later he was awarded an OBE, not for his unrewarded wartime heroics but for his TV portrayal of a comical and incompetent member of 鈥楧ad鈥檚 Army鈥�.

Although forever associated with 鈥楧ad鈥檚 Army鈥�, Ridley鈥檚 greatest success was as a playwright. In the early 1920s he wrote 鈥楾he Ghost Train鈥�, a hugely popular play about a group of stranded passengers.

Before Walmington-on-Sea beckoned, he had already appeared in three of Britain鈥檚 best-loved soap operas; The Archers, Crossroads and Coronation Street.

In 1976 members of Bath Rugby Club were among the theatrical guests paying tribute to Arnold when he was the subject of an edition of 鈥楾his Is Your Life鈥� with Eamonn Andrews.

Location: Jellalabad Barracks, Taunton, Somerset TA1 3QB
Image shows a young Arnold Ridley in the uniform of the Somersets
Photograph courtesy of Nicolas Ridley
Presented by David Eliot

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