In 1934, the last, and the most unusual, Great War memorial was added to the Royal Military College. Two bosses (i.e. gargoyle-like) heads depicting the cartoon characters Old Bill and Alfie were placed over the side door of Yeo Hall, the newly constructed Cadet Dining Hall. Old Bill and Alfie were two of the several cartoon characters created during the War by Captain Bruce Bairnsfather, Royal Warwickshire Regiment. These characters represented 'everyman' -the scruffy, but rock solid, front-line soldiers who, "coped with everything the enemy, their NCO's, their officers or the Staff could throw at them." The caption of his most famous cartoon, "Well, if you knows a better 'ole go to it," became the catch phrase of a generation.
Why Old Bill and Alfie found their way to RMC is unknown, but presumably the Commandant of the day was a fan (every RMC Commandant from 1919 to 1945 was a veteran of the Great War). A small officers' mess was tucked into a back corner of the second floor of this newly built Cadet Dining Hall. The stairs leading up to the Mess were accessed by the side entrance decorated with the two famous heads and the bar was called, "Bill and Alfie's". The RMC Officers' Mess was relocated long ago, but the original bar area, now incorporated into a greatly expanded Cadet Mess and Recreation Centre, is still known as 'Bill and Alfie's".
