A week ago, I wandered through the charming little Lincolnshire village of Little Ponton. In such places, the most interesting and certainly the most historical building is likely to be the parish church. No wonder then that in my countless country rambles I have taken very many pictures of country churches.
The church in Little Ponton is dedicated St Guthlac of Crowland who was a hermit and spiritual example to others in the early eighth century. Never before had I visited a church dedicated to Guthlac and in fact I have just learnt that there are only nine parish churches in England that bear his name. None are in Yorkshire or Derbyshire.
The photograph directly above was taken last week - with the gates of the churchyard invitingly open. I popped the picture into Microsoft Image Creator - a popular AI facility and requested a version in "oil paint" and the picture that emerged is the one shown at the top of this blogpost.
As I sat on the only churchyard bench there was, I noticed a cluster of family graves close by. I read them and realised that the family's patiarch - Richard Andrew Palethorpe Todd had been predeceased by three of his four sons with two of them committing suicide. Their gravestones were also in the cluster. I guessed there was a story there but doubted that I would ever know it.
I was about to carry on with my day-long walk when I noticed an inscription on the central gravestone - "Exit dashing young blade". It seemed an odd thing to put on a ninety year old man's grave. By the way, I did not take the picture below. I found it courtesy of Google Images.
Back home when researching the church, I discovered that Richard Palethorpe-Todd was none other than Richard Todd - a significant film star of the 1950s. In fact, he was Ian Fleming's first choice to play James Bond in the very first 007 film - "Dr No" (1962). Famously, that role went to Sean Connery instead.
Richard Todd was friends with both Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher both of whom he hosted at The Old Rectory in Little Ponton.
He was Oscar-nominated in 1949 and in 1955 he starred as Guy Gibson in "The Dam Busters". Interestingly, he willingly played his part in World War II and was one of the first British* soldiers to parachute into Normandy on D-Day. A hero on screen and off it it seems. "Dashing young blade" was a term fondly applied to him by The Queen Mother.
* - He was born in Dublin, Ireland
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