LETTER: Pioneer Goon

From Mr Colin Berkeley

Sir: Eagle Eye believes that the expression "royalty of no fixed abode" "belongs" to Tony Banks MP (Diary, 11 January). Not so; this apt phrase was raised some time in the late 1950s by one William "Mate" Cobblers, when he informed Ned Seagoon that he could not sleep on a particular park bench as it was "reserved for royalty of no fixed abode" ("Dishonoured", Goon Show).

As so often, Spike Milligan was there first.

Yours faithfully,

Colin Berkeley

Horsham,

West Sussex