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The last surviving REAL Great Escape Survivor finally passes away

(To forestall any bleats this is offered up within Naval History rather than the Stiff List as those brave Great Escapers also included an RN Officer and a former RMLI Officer. Tenuous Links aye, but nonetheless, & despite the Film's inaccuracies, the Real GE remains a classic & inspiring legend,)

Last real life Great Escape prisoner dies aged 99

Former Squadron Leader Dick Churchill was one of 76 airmen whose escape from the Stalag Luft III camp in Nazi Germany in 1944 was immortalised in the Hollywood film starring Steve McQueen.

Mr Churchill, who lived in Crediton, Devon, died on Wednesday, aged 99. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-47257570

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<<..Stalag Luft III ... Was a Luftwaffe-run prisoner of war (POW) camp during the Second World War, which held captured Western Allied air force personnel * ...>>

<<...Dick Churchill was probably spared because of his surname, shared with the British Prime Minister...>>

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stalag_Luft_III


* Plus at least one RN Officer- Lt Douglas A. Poynter Royal Navy - One of those escapees who were recaptured but not executed.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Allied_airmen_from_the_Great_Escape


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Also worthy of note - Previously a regular escaper, one of the GE organisers & another of those 30 escapees who were recaptured but not executed was a distinguished & decorated former WW1 Royal Marine officer (later FAA then RAF) - Group Captain Harry Melville Arbuthnot "Wings" Day GC, DSO, OBE (3 August 1898 – 11 March 1977) His career makes an interesting read, too. eg:

<<... a descendant of George Miller Bligh, who was an officer on HMS Victory during the Battle of Trafalgar...>>

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Day




Norra lotta people know all this - I only stumbled across the RN & RM connections during insomniacal trawlings.
 

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