The History Chap Podcast

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Chris Green is The History Chap; telling stories that brings the past to life.
The story of Philip Neame, the only man to be awarded both the Victoria Cross and an Olympic gold medal.

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Other episodes that you might enjoy:
Adrian Carton de Wairt - the Soldier they couldn't kill
William Coltman - Britain's Version of Hacksaw Ridge 

He won the Victoria Cross in the trenches of the First World War. 
He won Olympic gold at the 1924 Paris Games. 

To this day, no one else has ever achieved both. 

This is the extraordinary story of Sir Philip Neame VC — soldier, sportsman, prisoner of war, and member of one of Kent's most famous brewing families.

Born near Faversham in 1888, Philip Neame grew up in the family behind Shepherd Neame, Britain's oldest brewer. 

Educated at Cheltenham College, he trained at the Royal Military Academy Woolwich and was commissioned into the Royal Engineers. When war broke out in 1914, he was serving at Gibraltar but was quickly recalled to join the British Expeditionary Force on the Western Front. Within weeks of arriving in France, the young sapper found himself in the thick of fighting at Neuve Chapelle, where a desperate situation with faulty grenades and improvised fuses led to an astonishing act of bravery that earned him the Victoria Cross — one of 628 awarded during the entire war. 
He was just 26 years old.

Neame served throughout the First World War, was awarded the DSO, mentioned in dispatches ten times, and in 1920 was among the 75 VC holders who formed the guard of honour at the burial of the Unknown Warrior at Westminster Abbey. 

But his story was only getting started. At the 1924 Paris Olympics — the games immortalised in Chariots of Fire — Neame was part of the British shooting team that won gold in the Running Deer Double Shot event, beating Norway by a single point in a dramatic finale.

It was a triumph largely forgotten in the shadow of Abrahams and Liddell, yet Neame's unique double of Victoria Cross and Olympic gold has never been matched in the century since.

Transferring to the Indian Army, Neame survived being mauled by a tiger, married the nurse who saved him, and returned to Woolwich as its last ever Commandant before the Second World War intervened. 

Sent to North Africa as a lieutenant general, he was captured during Rommel's first offensive in Libya alongside fellow general Richard O'Connor — making them among the most senior British officers taken prisoner in the entire war. Held at the Castello di Vincigliata near Florence, a medieval fortress turned special POW camp, Neame used his engineering skills to design the escape tunnel through which two New Zealand brigadiers made it all the way to Switzerland. 

He himself escaped in September 1943 during the chaos of the Italian Armistice, eventually reaching Allied lines and meeting Churchill in North Africa before arriving home on Christmas Day.

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Chris Green is The History Chap; telling stories that brings the past to life.
Flogging was the principle punishment in the British Army for nearly 200 years.
Even the Duke of Wellington was a supporter.
So how harsh was it? And, why (and when) did it end?
Listen to my episode about the Officer Purchase System.
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For nearly 200 years, flogging was the disciplinary backbone of the British Army. 

From the passage of the Mutiny Act in 1689 to its abolition in 1881, corporal punishment shaped the experience of every soldier who wore the redcoat. 

The men who fought at Blenheim under Marlborough, who held the line at Waterloo under the Duke of Wellington, who endured the Peninsular and Crimean Wars, who fought in the American Revolutionary War — all were products of a system in which the lash was the primary instrument of military discipline.

Fans of Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe's Rifles will know this world. Richard Sharpe was sentenced to 2,000 lashes; Sergeant Harper bore the scars of sixty he didn't deserve. Cornwell wasn't exaggerating. During the Napoleonic Wars, British Army courts martial routinely handed down sentences of 500 lashes — and a thousand was not unheard of. Offences ranged from desertion and mutiny to the breathtakingly trivial: being deficient of a razor earned 200 lashes; improper use of barrack bedding, 400.

In this video, I trace the full story of flogging in the British Army. It begins with a legal rabbit hole — the Mutiny Act of 1689, passed after the Royal Scots mutinied at Ipswich and the government discovered it had no legal power to punish them. 

From there, I explore the brutal mechanics of the punishment itself: the cat o' nine tails, the regimental ceremony, the drummers and farriers who delivered the lashes, and the men who endured them.

I cover the key turning points — the scandal of Private Frederick White's death at Hounslow in 1846, the Duke of Wellington's response as Commander-in-Chief, and the long parliamentary campaign that finally ended with abolition under the Childers Reforms of 1881. 

Despite Private Hook being warned in the film "Zulu" that stealing Dr Witt's brandy was a flogging offence, by the time of Rorke's Drift the practice was already dying. 

But the story doesn't end in 1881. Corporal punishment continued in military prisons until 1907, and the replacement — Field Punishment Number One, which soldiers called "crucifixion" — wasn't abolished until 1923.
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Chris Green is The History Chap; telling stories that brings the past to life.
Did you know that the actor behind the much loved comedy character, Uncle Albert ("Only Fools and Horses") actually did serve in World War 2?
This is his real story.

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Chris Green is The History Chap; telling stories that brings the past to life.
What was the inspiration behind the Royal Navy's legendary field gun competition?

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Many of you may recall the Royal Tournament at Earl’s Court in London.
 The world’s premier military tattoo and pageant that was held for over 100 years until 1999.
 You may also recall the highlight of the event,  Royal Navy’s Command Field Gun Competition.
Two teams of 18 men hauling a 12 pound gun and limber (weighing something like 1200 pounds) along a 225 yard course that included obstacles such as a 5 foot high wall and a 28 foot chasm, all  in under 3 minutes.
 It was not for the feint hearted - not only was it gruelling race but men were seriously injured too.
But, where did the idea of this incredible feat of strength, stamina and teamwork come from?
This is the story of the Naval Brigade during the second Anglo-Boer war in South Africa 1899-1902.

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Chris Green is The History Chap; telling stories that brings the past to life.
The Bloodies European Battle in the 18th Century - Malplaquet 1709.
The Duke of Marlborough's fourth victory over the French and the one that led to his downfall.
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Other episodes in this series:
The Battle of Blenheim 1704
The Battle of Ramillies 1706
The Battle of Oudenarde 1708

You might also be interested in this book, that I used extensively during my research for this series.
"Marlborough: Britain's Greatest General" by Richard Holmes
(This is my Amazon affiliate link)

The Battle of Malplaquet, fought on the 11th September 1709 was the Duke of Marlborough's fourth victory over the French. 

It was also the bloodiest European battle of the whole 18th century.Between 30,000 - 40,000 men were killed or wounded in just one day.

Despite, been forced from the field by the comined allied army consisting of Dutch, German, Austrian, Danish and British soldiers, , the French were able to keep their army intact, ready to fight another day - their (sort of) Dunkirk moment.

That French escape, along with his heavy losses, was the beginning of the end for John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough. Within two years, arguably the greatest military commander in British history, was sacked. 

Despite it being a tactical victory, malplaquet was a pyrrhic victory for Marlborough and his allied army.
The Allies  lost nearly 21,000 men killed or wounded (almost a quarter of their army).The Dutch alone had lost over 8,000 men, whilst the British had lost nearly 1,800.
The French army, on the other hand had suffered somewhere between 11,000 - 14,000 casualties.

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