Page 95 - The Wish Stream Year of 2021 (Crest)

children’s programmes. In 1958 he was asked to design the logo for a new programme, Blue Peter, and came up with the iconic blue ship. So convinced was he that the show would be a hit (it is now the longest running children’s TV show in the world) that he asked for a penny every time the logo was shown – but was given £100 by the parsimonious manager.
In 1978 Hart was given his own show, Take Hart, and, such was its success, that he was awarded a BAFTA in 1984. Hart’s wife was not invited so he sent a polite refusal and learnt of the award from the comfort of his own sofa. A second show, Hart Beat, ran between 1985 and 1994, still featuring alternative art creations, the
In 1964 he received his big break
with a new show, Vision On. Origi-
nally aimed at deaf children, the
programme allowed Hart to exper-
iment with alternative art such as
an enormous picture of a tractor
made on a Sussex hillside from
144 roller towels. His insistence
that art should reach out to all, rich
and poor and of all levels of skill, was manifested in the weekly gallery of pictures sent in by children ofallages.Bythetimetheprogrammeendedin 1977 it was shown all over the world and made a global star of the genial, cravat-wearing, Hart.
SYDNEY CARLIN
Royal Engineers 1916
Few men can have ever had such a desire to engage the enemy as Sydney Carlin. Born in Hull on24thMarch1889heattendedasmallpub- lic school in the Lake District before working as a labourer on a farm in East Yorkshire. In 1908 he enlisted as a trooper in the 18th Hussars, his service records describing him as five foot six inches tall and weighing nine stone. Serving with his regiment at The Curragh near Dublin, after 17 months he decided to leave. His father paid the £18 necessary for his son to ‘buy himself out’ and Sydney returned to farming.
Immediately on the outbreak of the Great War, Carlin re-enlisted into the 18th Hussars and was re-imbursed half of his £18. He joined his regi- ment as part of 2nd Cavalry Brigade at Mons. However, most cavalry regiments were soon re- deployed as dismounted infantry as the conflict stagnated into trench warfare. In January 1915 Carlin was wounded in the head and, soon after returning to the trenches, was hit in the chest by a shrapnel ball which lodged in his pewter flask. On 13th May 1915, Carlin was awarded the Dis- tinguished Conduct Medal: ‘He was wounded under very heavy shell fire at Ypres. He refused to leave the firing line and kept the troops together
gallery of children’s pictures and the plasticine creation Morph. Indeed, Morph was created by Peter Lord and Dave Sproxton, young artists who later went on to found Aardman Animations responsible for Wallace and Gromet. In 1998 Tony Hart was awarded a second BAFTA for lifetime contribution to children’s television.
Active with many charities, he donated numerous paintings to the Gurkha Wel- fare Trust which were then sold for huge sums. Severely incapacitated following a stroke in 2001, he said that his inability to paint was ‘the greatest cross to bear’. Tony Hart died at Guild- ford on 18th January 2009.
in an exposed position after all his seniors had been killed.’
In the early part of
the war, a cata-
strophic 27% of
officers were killed
so Command-
ing Officers were
instructed to rec-
ommend suitable
NCOs. Thus, while
in the UK recu-
perating from his
wounds, on 15th
September, L/Cpl Carlin became 2/Lt Carlin of the Corps of Royal Engineers. Back in France, he served again on the Ypres sector and was promoted to Lt on 21st May 1916. Heavily com- mitted to engineering work in support of the Somme offensive, Carlin was severely wounded by a shell blast on 17th July resulting in his left leg being amputated below the knee. Recover- ing at Queen Mary’s Hospital, Roehampton, he learnt he had been awarded both a Mention
In 1998 Tony Hart was awarded a second BAFTA for lifetime contribution
to children’s television.
HISTORICAL 93