Tributes to last survivor of Great Escape team after his death at 99

TRIBUTES HAVE been paid to the last surviving member of the reallife Great Escape team after his death, aged 99.

Former squadron leader Dick Churchill, inset, was one of the 76-strong group who escaped in 1944 from the Stalag Luft III camp in Germany, the site of which now stands in Poland.

Their feat of courage became one of the most-told stories from the Second World War, immortalised in the 1963 film starring Steve McQueen.

Mr Churchill, who lived in Crediton, Devon, died on Wednesday.

Chief of the Air Staff Sir Stephen Hillier said: “On behalf

of the RAF as a whole I would like to offer my condolences to the friends and family of Flt Lt Richard ‘Dick’ Churchill, one of the RAF personnel involved in the Great Escape. He was from a selfless generation who offered bravery and sacrifice to secure our freedom, he will be sorely missed.”

Air Vice-Marshal David Murray, of the RAF Benevolent Fund, said: “Dick, as he was known, took part in one of the most audacious Prisoner of War escapes during the Second World War and embodied the spirit of the RAF – tenacious, resilient and incredibly brave in the face of adversity.”

Robert Ankerson, secretary of the Royal Air Forces Ex-Prisoners of War Association, said it had always been a pleasure to speak to Mr Churchill, who was a member.

Asked if he had reminisced much about his endeavours, he said: “A little bit. He was, overall, a very private man.”

Mr Churchill’s death followed that of Australian pilot Paul Royle, who died in Perth in 2015 aged 101. The survivors kept in contact via the Sagan Select Subway Society newsletter, of which the two were the last recipients.

Mr Churchill previously said he thought sharing his surname with wartime prime minister Winston Churchill had kept him alive, in case the Nazis wished to use him as bait with a powerful potential relative.