Up for sale... Rolex worn by hero PoW in Great Escape

A ROLEX watch worn by a B ritish prisoner of war during the Great Escape is expected to fetch up to £ 30,000 at auction.

Despite being held in the Stalag Luft III camp in East Germany, Flight Lieutenant Gerald Imeson was able to order and take delivery of the watch in 1942.

The Swiss firm had offered all British officer PoWs one of their timepieces to replace ones seized by the Germans – on condition they pay after the war.

The offer was made only to British officers because they were seen as honourable gentlemen.

Mr Imeson wore the watch as he helped dig the three tunnels

Mr Imeson’s historic Rolex Chronograph is expected to fetch £ 30,000 next month for the audacious escape attempt in 1944. He acted as a “penguin”, one of the men who dispersed soil dug from the tunnels through holes in their trouser pockets.

He was allocated position 172 in the queue of PoWs to escape but never made it into the tunnel because the guards discovered the break- out.

Of the 76 men who escaped, 73 were recaptured and 50 of them were executed. The event was immortalised in the 1963 film The Great Escape, starring Steve McQueen and Charles Bronson. Mr Imeson wore the Rolex Oyster Chronograph watch on the forced marches through Germany to evade the advancing Russians in the winter of 1945.

He survived and returned to Britain with the Rolex and eventually paid his £ 170 bill – about £ 5,000 today – in 1947.

Mr Imeson treasured the watch until he died in 2003 aged 85. His last wishes were for the timepiece to be sold one day so that his family could benefit.

It will be sold at Bourne End Auction Rooms, Buckinghamshire, on November 6.

It has a pre- sale estimate of £ 25,000 but is likely to sell for more. Auctioneer Martin Perrin

Flight Lieutenant Gerald Imeson, circled, with fellow prisoners at the Stalag Luft III camp in East Germany said: “PoWs generally had their watches confiscated on the excuse that they may have contained hidden compasses.

“When the owner of Rolex heard PoWs were having their watches taken from them he said British officers could replace them with a Rolex and not be billed until after the war.

“Airmen who were kept in Luft camps were treated quite well and there would have been a gentlemen’s agreement for the PoWs to order and keep these watches.

“The model Flight Lieutenant Imeson chose was one of the top Rolexes made at the time. It was sent to him at the camp via the International Red Cross.

“He kept the watch for the rest of his life and treasured it. But it was his wish that it be sold to benefit the family.

“It would appeal to two types of collectors – those interested in vintage watches and those interested in military history.”

Flight Lieutenant Imeson, of Overton, Hants, flew with Bomber Command during the war and was captured in October 1941.

The Wellington bomber he was piloting was returning to Britain from an attack on Cologne when it crashed off the Belgian coast.

At dawn the next day a member of the Belgian resistance swam out to assist the pilot and one other survivor but they were spotted by a German patrol boat and towed ashore.