Norman LongmateNorman Longmate, ex-Private 'F' Company, 3rd Sussex Battalion, Home Guard, joined 'Dad's Army' at the same age as the fictional character 'Pike', 17. To this day he contends that the much-loved sitcom was remarkably accurate in it's portrayal of lifein the Home Guard. After the war he read modern history at Worcester College, Oxford worked as a journalist and radio producer of history documentaries and is the author of twenty books on the Second World War. He lives in London. Read More Read Less