Sam Vimes is informed that Vetinari has been " reminded " that the old rank of Commander was the same as the old rank of Duke.

Sam Vimes was born in Cockbill Street as the son of Thomas Vimes, ( and, likewise, whose father was Gwilliam Vimes ) in the Rimwards part of the Shades, the poorest area of Ankh-Morpork.

Vimes was educated at a dame school, where he was once blackboard monitor for a whole term, before he had to drop out and concentrate on learning about life out on the streets.

His mother would go on to tell young Sam that his father was ' run down by a cart when he was crossing the street ': He privately reckons later that his father was a drunk: Vimes had never known his father.

His mum told him that the man had been run over by a cart, but Vimes suspected that if this were true at all, then it was probably a brewer's cart, which had ' run him over ' a bit at a time for years.

She died some point between the events of the " Glorious 25th of May " ( she was alive during the events of Night Watch ) and ten years prior to the " present-day " events in that novel ( before Vimes ' first appearance in Guards!

It has been suggested that Sam's father was a watchman in Jingo and he is a descendant of Suffer-Not-Injustice " Old Stoneface " Vimes, the Watch Commander who instigated the rebellion against, and subsequently beheaded, Lorenzo the Kind, the last king of the city ; a sadistic torturer described as " very fond of children.

" As a consequence, the Vimes family was stripped of its nobility.

Vimes was sixteen when he joined the Watch.

However, in newest history, Keel was in fact Vimes himself transported back in time by thirty years.

As Lu-Tze explains to Vimes in Night Watch, both pasts are true and there was a real John Keel.

However, Vimes was transported back in time in the company of a criminal named Carcer, whom he was trying to apprehend.

As noted above, Night Watch states that Vimes was sixteen years old when he joined the City Watch.

gives the age of Vimes ' son, ( also named Sam ), born during the climax of Night Watch, as being fourteen months, which would put Vimes at a minimum of 47 or 48 years old during the events of the book, however when Vimes discusses his time as a blackboard monitor, he thinks about it being " more than 45 years ago " and that he was six years old at the time, putting his age at least 51 years.

In Thud !, after an attempted assassination of his family, Vimes becomes furious at the ' deep-down dwarves ', a problem only made worse by the presence of a dark entity of pure vengeance within his mind.

Terry Pratchett has commented that Vimes has made setting a story in Ankh-Morpork very difficult as it is almost impossible to create a story involving any sort of crime or politics without it rapidly becoming a Watch book.

Known members include the Librarian ( who was actually made a Special Constable long before the Militia was set up ); Mr Boggis of the Thieves ' Guild ; Sam Vimes ' butler Willikins ; and a clacks operative named Andy " Two Swords " Hancock who carries a disturbing amount of weaponry.

She is also the one who makes Samuel Vimes aware of the fact that the Guild is no longer accepting contracts on his life.

The Librarian served a brief stint in the City Watch during the reign of terror caused by the dragon of Ankh-Morpork, where he helped to rescue Sam Vimes from the Patrician's cell.

Vimes then recruits the Watch into his own private army regiment, reasoning that, as an official noble, he is entitled to do so by law and by Lord Rust's command, with the group remaining independent as knights legally fall under command of the king or his duly-appointed representatives, neither of which exist in Ankh-Morpork.

Meanwhile, Nobby and Sergeant Colon have been recruited by Vetinari and his pet inventor, Leonard of Quirm, on a secret mission of their own, unknown to Vimes.

Vimes catches up with 71-hour Ahmed and has, by this time, figured out that Ahmed is a fellow policeman.

Vimes " accidentally " loses his " dis-organiser " ( given to him by his wife ) which kept giving him incorrect information.

As of his latest promotion, his full name and title is ; " His Grace, His Excellency, The Duke of Ankh ; Commander Sir Samuel Vimes ": When serving as Ambassador for Ankh-Morpork, he is also referred to simply as " His Excellency ", and is also nicknamed " Blackboard Monitor Vimes ," and " Vetinari's Terrier " ( or hammer ): According to his wife, Sybil, Vimes is recognised by many as Lord Vetinari's right-hand man.

This insult to Vimes ' sense of justice, together with his being naturally knurd and other events, ( it has been claimed he was " brung low by a woman ", which is an interpretation of the anthropomorphisation of the city, Morporkia ), led towards heavy drinking.

As part of an equal-opportunities drive required by the Patrician, the Night Watch under Vimes eventually took on extra staff in the form of a werewolf, a dwarf and a troll ( and later a gargoyle, a gnome, a golem, an Igor, a zombie, and a vampire ).

Despite being viewed by many of the Discworld's more Machiavellian power brokers as easy to fool, Vimes is in fact much more cunning than he appears.

Vimes has also managed to evade, beat off and ' kill ' ( at least, temporarily disable ) werewolves ( in The Fifth Elephant ), part of a pack of werewolves in " the game "; a werewolf tradition of chasing a human back to civilization that humans did not often win, during a version organized by Angua's brother Wolfgang ; Wolfgang insists that the werewolves would just have " nasty headaches later on.

), and Vimes ' own sense of justice being so strong that, in Thud !, it was even able to fend off the attempts to possess him by a ' quasi-demonic thing of pure vengeance '.

Despite having competent subordinates, including Captains Carrot and Angua, and Sergeant Detritus, Vimes finds it difficult to delegate, and is frustrated by the fact that the growth of the Watch has left him with less and less time for actual policing.

Samuel " Young Sam " Vimes II ) is Sam and Sybil Vimes ' son and only child ; he was born at the end of the events in Night Watch, is about fourteen months old by the time of Thud !, and at the age of six years old by the time of the events of Snuff.

A five-part radio adaptation of the novel was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 from February 27, 2008 that featured Philip Jackson as Sam Vimes and Carl Prekopp as young Sam.

John Keel, a city watchman, moved from Pseudopolis to Ankh-Morpork and was the mentor of the young Sam Vimes, ( Night Watch.

He believes he is pursuing justice, but an astute troll king named Mr. Shine and a bright young grag named Bashfulsson know that Vimes is carrying the Summoning Dark, the quasi-demonic entity that wreaks vengeance on dwarves who have done evil in the sight of other dwarves.

Currently in his late forties / early fifties ( Sam Vimes noted in Feet of Clay that the Patrician was about the same age as him, and it is shown in Night Watch that he was a student Assassin at the time of the main events of the book, when Vimes was 16 ), Lord Vetinari is tall, thin and dresses all in dusty black, including a black skullcap.

Samuel " Sam " Vimes is a fictional policeman from Terry Pratchett's Discworld series.

For three centuries afterwards, the memory of " Old Stoneface " has lived on in infamy and, as his descendant, Vimes has frequently endured suspicious mutterings from the aristocracy.

The main events of Night Watch, set only a few weeks after Vimes joined the Watch, are stated as occurring more than thirty years prior to the present from which Vimes came, this makes Samuel Vimes at least 46 years old at the time of the events of that book.

In his expanding international and diplomatic role, Vimes appreciates the fact that police officers from Sto Lat to Genua have been trained to salute him, and remain in unofficial contact across the Disc.

In The Art of Discworld, Pratchett explains that Vimes protects himself from the Beast with the symbol of his own badge, which prevents him from becoming the criminal he despises, at least in his own mind.

Vimes has once been described as a speciesist, though only from an " old school " mindset.

It is later revealed that the force that was preventing the Summoning Dark from making any progress in possessing Vimes was Vimes ' own ' inner guardsman ', who patrols the streets of his mind.

It is the task of the Night Watch – Captain Vimes, Sergeant Colon, Corporal Nobbs, and new volunteer Carrot Ironfoundersson – to stop them, with some help from the Librarian of the Unseen University, an orangutan trying to get the stolen book back.

Its only defeat was at the hands of The Guarding Dark, a likewise anthropomorphic entity born from the mind of Sam Vimes, though its purpose is that of a cosmic Watchman ; he / it does not keep the darkness out, it keeps it in.

As Vimes himself put it after a single shot from Piecemaker ripped a castle's gates to shreds, " Ye, Gods, Detritus.

Carrot and Angua arrive just in time to save Vimes from the murderous pack.

In addition, Vetinari mentions receiving only good reports about him from Vimes, though this may be related to the fact that Vimes believes complaints prove that you're doing the job right.

His office, in a separate building from the main watch house, is frequented by old acquaintances who want somewhere quiet to get away from the wife, hear what's happening on the street and — in Vimes ' words —" gossip like washerwomen.

He was apparently inspired to join the Watch after meeting with Sergeant-At-Arms John Keel ( and alternatively, due to time travel, Sam Vimes ), who once gave him a spoon ( which his father subsequently stole upon being released from prison ).

As a " special constable ", he continues to help out the Watch from time to time, such as giving Vimes the book of General Tacticus in Jingo and helping keep a barricade between rioting dwarfs and trolls in Thud!