I told you I was ill

I don't think Spike Milligan's wit would have appealed across the Pond, but he was one of the greatest comedians ever to have lived. He was completely anarchic and off-the-wall. He wrote The Goons, a brilliant 1950s BBC radio programme which set the scene for a comedy revolution. Everyone of note pays him homage, from The Prince of Wales to Monty Python. He created characters for Peter Sellers that added the initial boost to that great man's career.

Spike was born in India but grew up in my native Lewisham in London. He retained links within the borough up to the end of his life, including taking part in a tree-planting scheme. He died in 2002.

He always said that he wanted his epitaph to be, "I told you I was ill".

This is his gravestone, in Winchelsea Churchyard in Sussex, England. The church is very old and grand, and the town very exclusive and up itself (it was one of the Cinque Ports, a very ancient set of coastal towns, though changes in the coastline mean it is now miles inland), and there were objections to the wording, so it's written in Gaelic. Trust Spike to have the last laugh.

Spike was a great humanitarian, having been involved in the campaign to save the whales and in Beauty Without Cruelty. He was a manic depressive and was hospitalized several times in his life. He wrote several books, including his own autobiography, starting with "Hitler-My Part In His Downfall", nonsense verse for children and a book about the worst poet ever to have written in the English Language - William McGonagall.

If you want to know more about this comedy legend, go to spikemilligan.co.uk to visit his tribute site.