Sidney Alford obit

[Pupp]

Maybe not news in the immediate sense, but today‘s Times has a great obituary for a chap called Sidney Alford, who died on 11 Jan at age 86. Sadly, I can’t link to it as paywalled.

I’d never heard the name but think in terms of the Fred Dibnah of the explosives world and you’re not far off.

Self taught through mischief and experimentation, became an authority and innovator in bomb/IED disposal. Real mad professor stuff.

Another one gone. RIP fellah

[jet_noise]

I think he popped up regularly/occasionally on such as Brainiac and arms evolution docs.
Had that quality of being knowledgeable to a nerd level but also highly engaging.

[hidetheelephants]

He turned up in quite a few documentaries (possibly even presented some, can't remember), always an engaging commentator.

[henrycrun]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidney_Alford

[nikaiyo2]

I remember watching him blow up a toy car and plastic soldiers on TV, really interesting.

Seems to have developed some very novel explosives. How cool a job must that be.

[anonymous-user]

He did an episode of the Channel 4 documentary series Equinox all about explosives, very interesting.

I did like the fact the knocker on his front door was in the shape of a hand grenade.

[Pupp]

that would be disconcerting...

[jet_noise]

...and if the pin was a hinge and a bit loose!

[mcdjl]

For those without the times, his company posted an obit a few weeks back: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/alford-technologies...