M S Foy's and Anonymous's comments on the Waterloo refight at the Duke of York Barracks (below, here) have made the connection with another photograph and caption - the top-of-the-headless Wellington is almost certainly Eric Knowles (before his Antiques Roadshow fame - another lame cultural reference unintelligible to those outside the UK). Thanks Tony and Anon.
7 comments:
Wasn't Eric Knowles the co-author, with his brother, of those wonderfully quirky fantasy rules "The Quest of Thane Tostig"?, published way back in the '70s?
Yes, that was Eric Knowles. His shop, Wall Models, was located on Green Street, Upton Park, London. It was my local shop and the first I had visited. There was a wargming club in the cellar that met on Saturdays. The shop was later renamed, "New Model Army". IIRC it closed soon after Eric's death probably in the mid 1970s. Happy times.
New Model Army did indeed close down in the mid-70's - but Eric relocated his shop to Seven Kings thereafter. You may also be pleased to know that he is alive and well and very much as he was back in the day - hell, except for the snow white hair, he pretty much looks like that picture.
I'm his grandson, by the way. :)
Very glad to hear that
Good times, made many non-smoking friends there. Say hello to Eric for me.
Does anyone recall that shop with Mike Wall himself, with slot racing in the basement and another track in the shop?
I went to the shop when it first opened with the track in the front window. Like many models shops in those days it didn't seem to have much stock, or maybe the track just took up all the room! I went back some years later to join the Newham wargames club that met in the cellar every Saturday. I think that Mike used to play wargames himself as I remember him telling one of his customers that he had lost a modern game due to the other guy's hidden mortar position. I think it was then I decided to join the club that met there. There was always a terrific noise coming up from the cellar on a Saturday morning, most of it from one particular member.
Bernard
Post a Comment