Lieutenant Colonel A. D. Wintle (1897 - 1966) was a British military officer in the Royal Dragoons, who served in both World Wars.

Never without his trademark monocle, service revolver, and trusty umbrella, Wintle wasn’t the master of disguise he thought he was – but he certainly wasn’t going to let that stop him from having a go.

A decorated war hero, Wintle also saw the inside of a surprisingly large number of prison cells. Most of them in England.

However, Wintle was also the first non-lawyer to achieve a unanimous verdict in his favour at a trial in the House of Lords. Clearly, every man jack of them agreed with Wintle that the debagging of crooked solicitors is every Englishman’s duty.

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Phyllis Pechey – better known as Fanny Cradock ­– was an English television chef and writer.

Her popular BBC TV show, Kitchen Magic, saw her providing cookery demonstrations in company with (sometimes) husband Major Johnnie Cradock – who played the part of a dull-eyed, swaying, junior partner – whilst she snapped her fingers at her terrified assistants. 

After a successful stint as British television’s top chef, soon the bottom seemed to fall out of the market when it came to irascible, chiffon ballgown-wearing cooks with a penchant for piping bags and vegetable dyes.

Though celebrated for her abrasive style and haughty demeanour, it was later to prove her undoing ­– when she guested on an episode of the early reality show The Big Time in 1976, and openly chided a farmer’s wife from Devon for her rubbish menu, all the time mugging furiously at the cameras, rolling her eyes and pretending to retch.

Despite all this, for many, Cradock remains the ultimate Fanny!

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The Reverend Frederick Densham was Rector of St. Bartholomew Church in Warleggan, Cornwall, from 1931 until his death in 1953.

A cleric with unusual ideas in interior design. That thought – possibly correctly – that organ music was the work of the Devil. And who spent most of his time railing about the ills of humanity to small pieces of cardboard.

In an unusual move, upon becoming the vicar at the remote parish, Densham spent considerable time and industry alienating his entire congregation – doing such things as erecting an 8-foot barbed-wire fence around the rectory, banning whist drives, Sunday school, and the choir.

But, then, realising that no one was listening to his sermons, he fashioned his own paper and cardboard congregation and installed a Tannoy system at the front of the church so that he could bark out angry homilies about booze, beef, and his own organ.

Featuring Elizabeth Troake as Daphne du Maurier.

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The 1970s were the heyday of the ‘character footballers’ – the likes of Georgie Best and Charlie George. With popstar haircuts and dangerous playing styles, they were famed for their womanising and hard living. Yet, there’s a footballer that was head and shoulders above them all – and though you’ve probably never heard of him, he really wouldn’t have cared.

A man of many parts, Robin Friday could’ve played football for England – but, instead, preferred drinking Dry Martini with asphalters.

An off-pitch lifestyle that comprised largely of heavy smoking, drinking, drug taking, womanising, and petty criminality, Friday was also one of the few professional sportsmen to miss several important fixtures because they’d been arrested for impersonating a policeman.

Despite Friday’s remarkable ball skills and prolific goal-scoring, he retired after just four years as a professional player – because he was bored with people telling him what to do. Sadly, therefore, his mark on the beautiful game is often less celebrated than the mark he (allegedly) left on TV pundit Mark Lawrenson’s kitbag…

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In 1792, Joanna Southcott joined the Wesleyan Church in Devon – and announced to the congregation that she was ‘The Woman of the Apocalypse’, as described in the Book of Revelation.

When many of her baffling visions proved accurate, Southcott then decamped to London and picked up more than 100,000 disciples. She later prophesied that in her 64th year, she would give birth to the new messiah.

When Southcott died in 1814, she left behind a sealed trunk – containing many wonderous things that she believed would save England in its darkest hour. Depending on who you believe, her ‘box’ (as it is known) was either manhandled by a famous ghost-hunter – or, remains locked up at the location of the Garden of Eden. In Bedford.

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In 1931, a former police detective named Anthony William Hall sent a letter to King George V stating that he was claiming the throne – and demanding that the monarch immediately abdicate or face transportation.

Hall went on to hold several rallies across the UK at which he claimed to be the nation's true sovereign – and set out his plan to have the ‘imposter’ George V beheaded. Despite routinely being fined and bound over to keep the peace, Hall maintained his campaign, even going so far as having a bejewelled crown and ceremonial mace made up and his own currency printed.

Hall subsequently registered his ‘Tudor Manifesto’ with the Royal College of Arms; publicly outlining the changes he would make to British law once he succeeded to the throne. These populist policies included the abolition of income tax, opening up royal parks for picnics, and increasing the alcoholic strength of beer…

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Colonel Charles Sibthorp (1783 –1855), MP for Lincoln between 1826 and 1855. Punch designated the notorious ultra-Tory: 'the MP against everything'.

Sibthorp’s happy childhood, hunting unfortunate wildlife in rural Lincolnshire, informed his entire political outlook – and, consequently, he divined malevolent motives to any kind of progress whatsoever. Imagine then, the poor man’s upset at living through a period of political unrest, characterised by radical reforms and social changes…

During Sibthorp’s tenure in the House of Commons, he argued passionately for Catholic repression, and against The Great Exhibition, The National Gallery, the railway, and Queen Victoria’s husband. Sometimes with considerable eloquence. Sometimes with rooster impressions.

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The trailer for the new comedy history podcast The English Eccentric by E O Higgins.

Featuring historical characters with corkscrew minds, peculiar obsessions, and largely incomprehensible outlooks...

Subscribe now – and join me on a journey of historical whimsy!

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