07/01/2023
What a chap
FAMOUS PEOPLE IN UNIFORM:
Fred Dibnah, Army Catering Corps.
Aged 22 Dibnah was conscripted into the army to complete his National Service, in 1960. Although Dibnah initially resented being called into service, he would later be more positive about the experience: "It wasn't a bad thing, if National Service had been kept going it might have kept all the vandals and hooligans we have now in line."
["Why use scaffolding on a tall building when you can use a ladder?" Fred Dibnah https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3R3-YwDZrzg&ab_channel=dovecott ]
He spent six weeks basic training at Aldershot, before being sent to Catterick to learn the basics of army catering. He was then posted with the 14th/20th King's Hussars and sent to West Germany. There he persuaded his commanding officer to let him repair the regiment's farmhouse (used for stabling horses and hounds) and he was soon given a more permanent position as a builder and handyman, between his army catering work.
He dug a 35-foot (11 m) deep shaft into which the horse manure and dog faeces would be emptied and he also fed the animals. He impressed his commanding officers by making a weathercock from army kitchen trays, but was also chastised when he was found with a 1914 Luger P08 pistol he had bought from a fellow soldier.
He often received parcels of alcohol and to***co from his mother, which allowed him to maintain the habits he had formed when he began his working life.
Frederick Travis Dibnah, MBE (29 April 1938 – 6 November 2004) was a British steeplejack and television personality, with a keen interest in mechanical engineering, who described himself as a "backstreet mechanic".
When Dibnah was born, Britain relied heavily upon coal to fuel its industry. As a child, he was fascinated by the steam engines which powered the many textile mills in Bolton, but he paid particular attention to chimneys and the men who worked on them. He began his working life as a joiner, before becoming a steeplejack. From age 22, he served for two years in the Army Catering Corps of the British Army, undertaking his National Service. Once demobilised, he returned to steeplejacking but met with limited success until he was asked to repair Bolton's parish church. The resulting publicity provided a boost to his business, ensuring he was almost never out of work.
In 1978, while making repairs to Bolton Town Hall, Dibnah was filmed by a regional BBC news crew. The BBC then commissioned a documentary, which followed the rough-hewn steeplejack as he worked on chimneys, interacted with his family and talked about his favourite hobby—steam. His Lanky manner and gentle, self-taught philosophical outlook proved popular with viewers and he featured in a number of television programmes. Towards the end of his life, the decline of Britain's industry was mirrored by a decline in his steeplejacking business and Dibnah increasingly came to rely on public appearances and after-dinner speaking to support his income. In 1998, he presented a programme on Britain's industrial history and went on to present a number of series, largely concerned with the Industrial Revolution and its mechanical and architectural legacy.
He died from bladder cancer in November 2004, aged 66.
