1. William Arnold Ridley was an English playwright and actor, known early in his career for writing the 1925 play The Ghost Train and later in life for the British television sitcom Dad's Army, in which he played the elderly, bumbling Private Godfrey.
Arnold Ridley appeared in such Dad's Army spin-offs as the feature film version and the stage production.
William Arnold Ridley was born in Walcot, Bath, Somerset, England, the son of Rosa Caroline and William Robert Ridley.
Arnold Ridley's father was a gymnastics instructor and ran a boot and shoe shop.
Arnold Ridley attended the Clarendon School and the Bath City Secondary School where he was a keen sportsman.
Arnold Ridley was a student teacher and had made his theatrical debut in Prunella at the Theatre Royal, Bristol when he volunteered for service with the British Army on the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914.
Arnold Ridley was initially rejected because of a hammer toe.
Arnold Ridley saw active service in the war, sustaining several wounds in close-quarter battle.
Arnold Ridley was medically discharged from the army with the rank of lance corporal in May 1917.
Arnold Ridley received the Silver War Badge having been honourably discharged from the army due to wounds received in the war, and was awarded the British War Medal and the Victory Medal for his service.
Arnold Ridley rejoined the army in 1939 following the outbreak of the Second World War.
Arnold Ridley was commissioned into the General List on 7 October 1939 as a second lieutenant.
Arnold Ridley served with the British Expeditionary Force in France during the "Phoney War", employed as a "Conducting Officer" tasked with supervising journalists who were visiting the front line.
In May 1940, Arnold Ridley returned to Britain on the overcrowded destroyer HMS Vimiera, which was the last British ship to escape from the harbour during the Battle of Boulogne.
Arnold Ridley relinquished his commission as a captain on 1 June 1940.
Arnold Ridley subsequently joined the Home Guard, in his home town of Caterham, and ENSA, with which he toured the country.
Arnold Ridley described his wartime experiences on Desert Island Discs in 1973.
Arnold Ridley wrote more than 30 other plays, including The Wrecker, Keepers of Youth, The Flying Fool and Recipe for Murder.
Arnold Ridley worked regularly as an actor, including an appearance in the British comedy Crooks in Cloisters.
Arnold Ridley played Doughy Hood, the village baker, in the radio soap opera The Archers and the Rev Guy Atkins in the ATV soap Crossroads from the programme's inception in 1964 until 1968.
Arnold Ridley has appeared into his eighties, and was appointed an OBE in the 1982 Queen's New Year Honours List, for services to the theatre.
Arnold Ridley was the subject of This Is Your Life in 1976 when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews at London's Marylebone Station.
Arnold Ridley was a Freemason, and belonged to the Savage Club Lodge in London.
Arnold Ridley died in hospital in Northwood in 1984 at the age of 88 after falling at his residence in Denville Hall, a home for retired actors.
Arnold Ridley's body was cremated at the Golders Green Crematorium and an urn holding his ashes was buried in his parents' grave at Bath Abbey Cemetery.