Spike Milligan

Spike Milligan was born Terence Alan Milligan on 16 April 1918 in Ahmednagar, then part of the British Raj, to an Irish father, Leo Alphonso Milligan, and an English mother, Florence Mary Winifred Kettleband. His early years were spent in Poona and Rangoon, where he attended convent and missionary schools before the family relocated to England in 1931, settling in Brockley, South‑East London. After a brief stint as a clerk at the Woolwich Arsenal he discovered jazz, learned several instruments, and joined the Young Communist League as a protest against Oswald Mosley’s fascists. During the Second World War he served in the Royal Artillery, eventually rising to lance‑bombardier before a wound at Monte Cassino ended his frontline duties and led to a period of entertaining troops, a formative experience that seeded the surreal humour of his later work. The Goon Show (1951‑1960) made him a household name; as chief writer and principal performer he created iconic characters such as Eccles and Minnie Bannister, pushing the limits of sound‑effects technology and pioneering the absurdist style that would influence Monty Python. After the radio success he ventured into television with the avant‑garde Q series, contributed to numerous sitcoms, animated programmes and children’s books, and penned a seven‑volume war memoir that blended comedy with stark wartime recollection. His poetry, especially the nonsense verses for children, earned him a place in school curricula and the affection of readers worldwide, while his outspoken persona—marked by public spats with royalty, legal brushes, and fervent campaigning for environmental and anti‑violence causes—made him a provocateur as well as an entertainer. Spike’s later years were shadowed by bipolar disorder, several severe breakdowns and a relentless creative output, culminating in an honorary KBE in 2001 and a CBE in 1992; he died of kidney failure on 27 February 2002 in Rye, East Sussex, leaving a legacy that still reverberates through modern comedy.