We all need heroes. When I was young, just after WWII, it was too fresh so we looked further back to such as Admiral Lord Nelson, Francis Drake, Boadicea, Livingstone, Columbus etc. The events which caught our imaginations included The Charge of the Light Brigade, The Battle of Omdurman, The Afghan Wars, Gallipoli, Agincourt, and Trafalgar. With the books being published in the 1950’s our attention was drawn back to WWII and its heroes such as Douglas Bader, David Stirling, Aude Wingate and Montgomery. We even learnt respect for Rommel. Colditz Castle, Dunkirk and Normandy and their stories became familiar, but all of these involved the Military. Even ‘The Man Who Never Was’, that amazing tale of deception made into a film, though the silent hero was a civilian when he died, was part of a military operation. The death and magnificent state funeral in 1965 of Sir Winston Churchill ensured that his name would remain at the top of our list of heroes.