Henry Mainwaring Henry Mainwaring Sir Henry Mainwaring (1587–1653), was an English lawyer, soldier, author, seaman and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1621 to 1622. He was for a time a pirate based in Newfoundland and then a naval officer with the Royal Navy. He supported the Royalist cause in the English Civil War. Mainwaring was born in Ightfield, Shropshire, second son of Sir George Mainwaring and his wife Ann, the daughter of Sir William More of Loseley Park in Surrey. His maternal grandfather was Sir William More, Vice-Admiral of Sussex. He graduated from Brasenose College at Oxford University,
Captain Mainwaring set in 1968, Mainwaring, who was born in 1885, would have been 82 years old then and 60 at the end of the Second World War. In a radio sequel to "Dad's Army", "It Sticks Out Half a Mile", which is set in 1948 (three years after the Second World War ended), it is revealed that Mainwaring spent two years manufacturing cuckoo clocks in Switzerland. However, the first episode of "Dad's Army" shines light on Mainwaring's future: briefly set in the then present-day 1968, it features Mainwaring as guest of honour at the launch of Walmington's "I'm Backing Britain" campaign,