Deryck Guyler - Wargamer
I suppose that there won’t be many who will remember the well loved actor Deryck Guyler, especially outside of the UK. Well, he was a very accomplished comedy actor who was popular just after the second world war and who went on to become one of our best loved characters in a number of sitcoms namely, Sykes, where he played the part of Constable Turnbull (alias Corky) which ran for 20 years from 1960 and in the TV series Please Sir! where he is probably best known for being the cantankerous school caretaker Norman Potter. Claiming to be an ex- Desert Rat, Potter would often complain about class ‘Five C’ and their ‘dreadful behaviour’. He also had a starring role alongside the Beatles in A Hard Days Night. He passed away at the age of 85 in 1999 after emigrating to Australia.
Well, for those of you who do remember him there is one thing that you may not be aware of and that is, he was an avid wargamer. He was not a board wargamer but a miniature gamer and had a huge collection of model soldiers. He was a founding member of the Society of Ancients, a group of wargamers specialising in the Classical Era. Very active in the society in its early years, being elected its first president in 1966, he was later made an honorary life president of the society. Well I thought I would share that little snippet with you in case you may be interested.