You Must Be Joking

If you are reading this you shouldn’t. You should go to YouTube and search for You Must Be Joking (b&w, 1965, Michael Winner).

I saw it when I was twelve and it was my absolute favourite film until The Jokers was released in 1967; two terrific comedy capers if you have a mental age of eleven and a half which I still have. They are both about quests and on Wednesday I went on a quest with my Foreign Office (retired) friend. We didn’t set our sights too high, we only wanted to see some of the twenty holders of the Victoria Cross buried in Brompton Cemetery.

I especially wanted to find Captain Alfred Kirk Ffrench’s (1835 – 1872) headstone as he was awarded an elective VC and I love the Ff. I bet the elective VC has got you stumped. Anyway we couldn’t find it. We couldn’t find Corporal Hancock.  “During a withdrawal under fire in the Indian Mutiny in 1857 their Brigadier became trapped under his horse and, while he was being dragged out, Hancock and another Lancer fought off the enemy and escorted him to safety.” (Brompton Cemetery website)

Of course I wanted to see Lieutenant General Sir Charles Crauford Fraser’s (KCB VC MP) headstone. “In 1858, already wounded himself, he rescued a troop of cavalry from drowning as they were being swept downstream under fire through Indian Mutineers lines. He was also awarded the Royal Humane Society Gold Medal.”

Well, eventually, we found Private Parkes (1813 – 1864) and paid our respects. “One of the four Charge of the Light Brigade VCs awarded in 1854, Parkes, who had lost his horse, went to the aid of his wounded Trumpet Major, fighting off six attacking Cossacks with his sabre while dodging incoming artillery shells. A shell shattered his sword but he so scared his assailants that they withdrew in confusion allowing Parkes and his NCO to regain their own lines.”

We found one other VC grave and I showed my friend the Warneford headstone paid for by the readers of The Daily Express. So our score was 3/20 – pathetic but enough to earn a good lunch nearby.