death_date birth_place birth_date article_title name
6 may 1972 london , england 6 december 1894 atholl fleming
 atholl fleming mbe
atholl fleming

atholl fleming mbe -lrb- 6 december 1894 -- 6 may 1972 -rrb- was a british actor and an australian radio personality .
he was the third of nine children of the rev r. s. fleming , a scottish baptist minister of pitlochry and later beckenham in kent .
after a fall as a child , he became deaf in his right ear .
he was educated at the city of london school .
he saw fighting in france during world war i with the royal west kent regiment , notably the battle of the somme , and was wounded three times -- a shrapnel wound to the head , a bayonet wound in the knee and gas injuries , which left him with a cough for the rest of his life .
he was awarded the freedom of the city of london .
after the war , he abandoned a career with the bank of england for the stage , appearing in a number of whitehall farces and dramas on bbc television at alexandra palace .
he starred in `` people like us '' at the strand in 1929 .
he toured australia in 1932 with dame sybil thorndike and sir lewis casson , -lrb- playing dunois in `` st joan '' and macduff in `` the scottish play '' -rrb- and while in sydney married fellow company member , phyllis best , daughter of sir robert best , a former member of the australian parliament from hawthorn , victoria .
their son robert atholl fleming -lrb- later a british television director and producer and md of argo productions , -rrb- was born in 1933 .
fleming appeared in a number of british films throughout the 1930s most notably as bulldog drummond in the jack hulbert comedy thriller `` bulldog jack '' -lrb- 1935 -rrb- .
before the outbreak of the second world war he volunteered for duty , but was rejected because of his age and ww1 injuries .
his australian father-in-law persuaded him to take his family to australia .
he joined e.j tait 's touring company , then the australian broadcasting commission as actor and drama producer .
he was active in the british drama league and acted as adjudicator for its annual competitions .
in 1946 he was a member of the `` radio players '' , who performed max catto 's `` they walk alone '' and philip johnson 's `` lover 's leap '' to outstanding reviews .
for a time , he was co-producer -lrb- with richard parry -rrb- for kathleen robinson 's `` whitehall institute of dramatic art '' , a competitor of doris fitton 's independent theatre .
he notably appeared as gloucester in john alden 's 1951 production of king lear at st james ' hall in phillip street .
he was called upon to adjudicate at major drama festivals .
as `` mac '' he became the central figure in the australian broadcasting commission 's ` children 's session ' and , as `` jason '' , became the leader , to children all over australia , of the hugely popular argonaut 's club for most of its 31-year run , from 7 january 1941 until 2 april 1972 .
with his wife phyllis he visited countless schools and children 's hospitals .
he became a figure much loved by generations of australian children .
he was awarded an mbe on 14 june 1969 for his contribution to broadcasting and his work with children .
fleming loved sport .
he was a founder member of the stage golfing society -lrb- handicap 7 -rrb- and the stage cricket club in england .
he started the stage and radio cricket club in sydney .
he was a useful bat , a good slip field and a machiavellian captain .
atholl fleming retired in 1969 , shortly before the argonaut 's club and the children 's session , because of the advance of television , were closed .
he was one of the best loved and most respected figures in australian broadcasting .
