31 Facts About Captain Mainwaring

Captain George Mainwaring is a fictional Home Guard captain, first portrayed by Arthur Lowe in the BBC television sitcom Dad's Army.

Captain Mainwaring is considered a classic British comic character owing to the continuing currency of Dad's Army via regular repeats and Lowe's portrayal.

Mainwaring was born in 1885 to Edmund Mainwaring and is a pompous, blustering figure with an overdeveloped sense of his importance, fuelled by his social status in Walmington-on-Sea as the bank manager and his status as captain and commander of the local Home Guard volunteer unit.

Captain Mainwaring became commander of his home guard unit by saying that he had served as a captain in the last British conflict, despite serving 'somewhere in the Orkneys' during the Great War and only being deployed to France in 1919, the year after the armistice was signed.

Captain Mainwaring was later officially designated as the captain by the GHQ, in the episode "Room at the Bottom", after his brief reduction in rank.

Captain Mainwaring has many redeeming qualities: he is essentially brave, loyal and industrious, generally kind-hearted beneath the bluster and unfailingly patriotic.

Captain Mainwaring believes in following rules and orders, sometimes to a ludicrous degree and is class-conscious and a snob.

Captain Mainwaring is particularly jealous of Wilson, who is more relaxed and charming and possesses combat experience that Captain Mainwaring does not and takes every opportunity to remind his sergeant who is the senior.

Captain Mainwaring nonetheless managed to pull a group of local shopkeepers "up by their bootstraps" to become some kind of fighting unit.

Captain Mainwaring's patriotism and eagerness to see combat tend to make him overconfident, and "I don't want to hear any of that sort of talk, Wilson" is a common response when Wilson points out problems.

Captain Mainwaring sees all regular British servicemen as exceptionally brave and resourceful, while seeing the Germans as inept and cowardly.

In "The Royal Train", Captain Mainwaring reveals his desire to drive a train ever since he was a child and that wish comes true.

Captain Mainwaring has several redeeming qualities, including a deep concern for the welfare of the men under his command.

Captain Mainwaring clears bricks from a bombed-out corridor which could have fallen at any moment.

Captain Mainwaring insists he work in the most dangerous position even though in drawing lots he had picked the safest.

In "Command Decision", Captain Mainwaring is prepared to relinquish control so that the platoon could gain rifles, arguing that the defence of the country is more important than his ego.

Captain Mainwaring hates conscientious objectors; he sees them as abnormal as they do not want to fight for their country, as shown when he discovers Private Godfrey was a conchie.

Captain Mainwaring says he cannot understand why Godfrey doesn't wear the medal.

Captain Mainwaring is capable of acting decisively and independently, although not always with the best of results.

Captain Mainwaring turns and it is revealed he has a black eye.

Walker later jokes, asking if Mrs Captain Mainwaring has a rolling pin.

Dad's Army ends with the Second World War still in progress, Captain Mainwaring giving Mrs Fox away when she marries Corporal Jones, because her father is dead.

Captain Mainwaring appears in one with his granddaughter on their way to her wedding, notwithstanding the fact that in the closing scene of "Absent Friends", he tells the platoon that his marriage has been childless.

Captain Mainwaring is an inverted snob who believes that it is the class system that prevents his promotion to the higher echelons of the Bank.

Whilst Wilson resented this, Captain Mainwaring became infuriated and did everything in his power to demonstrate that he outranks Wilson, even going to the lengths of telling Wilson when he was allowed to smoke.

In "Wake Up Walmington", Captain Mainwaring raves about how after the war, the country will be run by professionals, by people who have worked like him, but does not approve of Hodges being Chief ARP Warden because he is a greengrocer.

Captain Mainwaring is generally ill at ease in social situations that require him to communicate with people on an equal social level and this is probably the main reason for his lack of promotion.

Captain Mainwaring is prudish and repressed and can be judgmental about people who do not share his moral outlook.

The statue shows Captain Mainwaring sitting upright on a simple bench in Home Guard uniform, with his swagger stick across his knees.

The statue is mounted at the end of a winding brick pathway with a Union Flag patterned arrowhead to reflect the opening credits of the TV series and the sculpture has been designed so that one can sit next to Captain Mainwaring and have one's photo taken.

In 1995, the series 2 episode of Goodnight Sweetheart entitled Don't Get Around Much Anymore had a meta reference to the character, whereby the series protagonist, Gary Sparrow, travels back in time to visit a wartime bank and finds that its manager is in fact the "real" Mr Captain Mainwaring who, accompanied by his chief clerk Mr Wilson, serves in the Home Guard.