[4] After leaving school, he studied automobile engineering at the Northampton Institute (now part of the City University, London) but being more practical than academic he left after a year to work at the repair facilities of F.W.

[5] Frederick William Berwick became a partner in the Anglo-French automobile manufacturing company Sizaire-Berwick and, in August 1913, Warner was sent to work as a mechanic in Paris.

[6] He acquired a working knowledge of French which stood him in good stead throughout his life; an imitation of Maurice Chevalier became a part of his repertoire.

By the early years of the Second World War, he was nationally known and starred in a BBC radio comedy show, Garrison Theatre, invariably opening with "A Monologue Entitled...".

His stock rose further when he played PC George Dixon pursuing young hoodlum Dirk Bogarde in The Blue Lamp (1950), the most successful film at the box office that year.

He co-starred in the Hammer film version of The Quatermass Xperiment (1955) and had a cameo-like supporting role as the police superintendent in the 1955 Ealing Studios black comedy The Ladykillers.

Even with his success that followed in television, Warner performed in the occasional film such as Now and Forever (1956), Home and Away (1956), Carve Her Name with Pride (1958) and Jigsaw (1962).

Although the police constable he played in The Blue Lamp was shot dead in the film, the character was revived in 1955 for the BBC television series Dixon of Dock Green, which ran until 1976.

Warner commented in his autobiography that the honour "entitles me to a set of 18th century rules for the conduct of life urging me to be sober and temperate".

[2] The characterisation by Warner of Dixon was held in such high regard that officers from Paddington Green Police Station bore the coffin at his funeral.