We shouldn't forget Jimmy Edwards.
He served in the RAF during World War II, earning the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC).
His Dakota was shot down at Arnhem in 1944, resulting in his sustaining facial injuries requiring plastic surgery — he disguised the traces with the huge handlebar moustache that later became his trademark.
He was a member of the Guinea Pig Club.
And as mentioned elsewhere:
Few men write an interim autobiography at the age of thirty-two [Take it from Me]. But then few men have done enough by that age to justify such an act. “Professor” Jimmy Edwards is one of them.
A Master of Arts at Cambridge University, where he won a Choral Scholarship, distinguished war service with the R.A.F. (he won the D.F.C. for his gallantry in flying operations over Arnhem), starting his post-war professional career as leading comedian at the Windmill Theatre, teaming up with Joy Nichols first in Navy Mixture and then with her and Dick Bentley in the fabulous Take It From Here and finally being elected Rector of Aberdeen University where his inaugural address was justly praised by the whole Press - Jimmy Edwards has packed into a few short years successful events that would take most men a lifetime to achieve - if ever.
PS - British Pathe has a clip of him in procession at Aberdeen here:
"PROF." JIMMY NOW RECTOR - British Pathe