Up for sale, medals of hero who staged f irst great escape
IT was what he saw as the ‘shame and dishonour’ of being taken prisoner at Dunkirk that drove him to become the first British officer to escape from a Nazi prisoner-of-war camp.
Moving only at night, Edinburgh-born Lieutenant General Sir Chandos Blair made it through wartime Germany to Switzerland, then on to Spain and Gibraltar in his epic journey home to Britain.
Now the medals of the Seaforth Highlander, who also survived D-Day, have been put up for sale by his family.
The father of two had an illustrious military career, which included being chosen by the Queen for a diplomatic mission to Uganda in 1975 to stop dictator Idi Amin executing a British teacher.
His medals are expected to sell for around £10,000 at London auctioneer Morton & Eden later this month. David Kirk, a medal specialist at the auction house, said: ‘Blair’s career in the Army is an incredible storyline.
‘He staged the first great escape of the war by a British Army officer and amassed a very impressive group of ten medals which we now have the pleasure of selling.’
In June 1940, Sir Chandos, then a second lieutenant in the 2nd Battalion, took part in a doomed battle against Rommel’s Panzers near Dunkirk where they were captured.
The officer and his fellow Seaforth Highlanders were forced to march 220 miles over 14 days, with little food and water, to Hulst in Holland.
He was then put on a packed steamer for the trip down the Rhine to Germany, before boarding a train to Laufen in Bavaria. He arrived at PoW camp Oflag VII-C on July 7.
During his time in captivity he wrote home describing his ‘disgrace and dishonour’ at being taken prisoner. After an earlier escape attempt failed, in June 1941 he hid in a handcart packed with wooden beds which was later wheeled out of the camp to a storage shed.
He emerged from hiding and began the perilous 75 mile journey to the Swiss border. Armed with only a compass, matches, chocolate and Horlicks tablets, he hid in woods during the day and moved at night. After a week he arrived in neutral Switzerland.
Sir Chandos was awarded the Military Cross for his daring escape. He later wrote that he ‘thoroughly enjoyed being hunted like a wild animal’.
He went on to serve as a major with the Seaforth Highlanders and shortly after D-Day was involved in Operation Epsom, the Allied offensive to take Caen, during which he was awarded a second MC.
Sir Chandos was made an OBE in 1962 and appointed a Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order. He went on to serve as General Officer Commanding of the Army in Scotland and was Governor of Edinburgh Castle. He retired with his late wife Audrey to Gullane, East Lothian. Sir Chandos died in 2011, aged 91
His medals: OBE, Military Cross and Bar, 1939-45 Star, France and Germany Star, 1939-45 Defence Medal, British War Medal 1939-45, General Service Medal and Silver Jubilee 1977, Royal Victorian Order, Second Class Knight Commander’s Set of Insignia, will go under the hammer on June 27.
‘Hunted like a wild animal’