Windsor Davies miner and a teacher at Mountside School for Boys in Leek, Staffordshire and did national service in Libya and Egypt with the East Surrey Regiment between 1950-1952 before deciding to become an actor. Davies' best known role was as Battery Sergeant Major Williams in the British sitcom "It Ain't Half Hot Mum" (1974–81). Among his catchphrases was "Shut Up!!", delivered as an eardrum-shattering military scream. Another phrase was "Oh dear, how sad, never mind", delivered in a dry, ironic manner, and used when others around him had problems. Davies and co-star Don Estelle had a number one hit in the
Jimmy Perry Mum", "Hi-de-Hi!" and "You Rang, M'Lord?" Many of the sitcoms Perry co-wrote with Croft drew heavily on his personal experience: at 16 he joined the Watford Home Guard ("Dad's Army"); two years later he was called up into the full-time forces, and was sent to Burma with the Royal Artillery, where he joined the Royal Artillery Concert Party and reached the rank of sergeant ("It Ain't Half Hot Mum"). Demobbed and back in the UK, he trained as an actor at RADA, spending his holidays working as a Redcoat in Butlin's Holiday Camps ("Hi De Hi!"). The "Dad's Army" mummy's