FOUND A GRAVE

Wilfred Pickles (13 October 1904 in Halifax – 27 March 1978 in Brighton) was an English actor and radio presenter. Born in Halifax in the West Riding of Yorkshire, he moved to Southport, Lancashire, with his family in 1929 and worked with his father as a builder. He joined an amateur dramatic society and in a local production there, met Mabel Celilia Myerscough, all of whose family had been connected with the stage. Pickles remained a proud Yorkshireman, and having been selected by the BBC as an announcer for its North Regional radio service, he went on to be an occasional newsreader on the BBC Home Service during World War II. He was the first newsreader to speak in a regional accent rather than Received Pronunciation, “a deliberate attempt to make it more difficult for Nazis to impersonate BBC broadcasters”, and caused some comment with his farewell catchphrase “… and to all in the North, good neet”. His first professional appearance was as an extra in Henry Baynton’s production of Julius Caesar at the Theatre Royal in Halifax in the 1920s. Pickles soon became a radio celebrity, and pursued an acting career in London’s West End theatre, on television and on film. Pickles was the uncle of judge James Pickles and actress Christina Pickles, and great-uncle of actress Carolyn Pickles. On 1955 he opened the Wilfred Pickles’ School for Spastics at Tixover Grange, Rutland. Also in 1955, he and wife Mabel celebrated their Silver Wedding Anniversary by returning to the Sacred Heart Church in Southport, when they gave money for a statue of Saint Teresa, which still stands in the church. They recorded an edition of the radio show Have a Go from the church hall (now demolished) and later did a version of the show, in the adjacent school for the children. He died in Brighton on 27 March 1978 aged 73 and is buried with his wife Mabel in Southern Cemetery, Manchester.