Great British eccentrics

Lt-col Jack Churchill (1906–96)

IN 1939, Churchill represented Great Britain at archery in the World Championships. This proved good training for when, in the same year, Europe went to war again—the soldier packed his bow and set off for France, where he was awarded an MC. In 1941, he joined the British Commandos, but not before chalking up the last recorded longbow kill in military history. In a raid on a Nazi post in Norway, Mad Jack, as he had become known, rallied his men in unusual fashion. Standing on one of the incoming boats, he played his bagpipes with gusto. When they landed on the beach, he exchanged the instrument for a broad-hilted claymore sword, threw a grenade and charged the enemy. In 1944, Churchill was captured, but, in 1945, he escaped his prisoner-of-war camp and walked over the Alps back to the Allied forces. Sidney Hiscox