bobdina
06-08-2010, 12:50 PM
Jun 8 2010 By Chris Musson
THE last surviving hero of the Great Escape has died aged 97.
Former RAF pilot Jack Harrison was the last man standing from the daring breakout immortalised in the 1963 film starring Steve McQueen.
Yesterday, the Erskine charity said Jack died at their veterans home near Bishopton, Renfrewshire, last Friday.
Scot Jack spent most of his life living in Rothesay, on the Isle of Bute, and rose to be director of education for the local council.
He was a Latin teacher in Sutherland when he was called up to serve in the RAF during World War II.
He was shot down in November 1942 over Holland, captured by the Germans and transferred to the Stalag Luft III camp in Poland.
In 1944, Jack was involved in what became one of the most famous incidents of the war when inmates tunnelled out of the camp.
Their actions were immortalised in the screen classic starring McQueen, James Garner and Richard Attenborough.
On the night of March 24, 1944, some 200 prisoners readied themselves to escape through a tunnel dug over a period of months.
The plot was foiled as the 77th prisoner was escaping.
Jack was number 106 on the escape list and was waiting to go down a tunnel when he heard guards' gunshots.
Unable to escape, Jack quickly burned his forged documentation in the stove and changed his clothing from an engineer disguise back to a PoW.
Of 76 escapees, 73 were captured. Fifty were later executed by the Nazis.
Speaking last year, Jack said: "We were based in block 104, where our tunnel Harry began.
"Harry was the only one that wasn't discovered by the Nazis, because its entrance was hidden underneath the stove."
After the war, Jack returned to his wife Jean, whom he'd married in 1940, and resumed his career as a teacher in Glasgow.
He is survived by his two children, Chris and Jane, and two grandchildren, Mark and Stuart.
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/2010/06/08/last-surviving-hero-of-the-great-escape-dies-aged-97-86908-22318442/
THE last surviving hero of the Great Escape has died aged 97.
Former RAF pilot Jack Harrison was the last man standing from the daring breakout immortalised in the 1963 film starring Steve McQueen.
Yesterday, the Erskine charity said Jack died at their veterans home near Bishopton, Renfrewshire, last Friday.
Scot Jack spent most of his life living in Rothesay, on the Isle of Bute, and rose to be director of education for the local council.
He was a Latin teacher in Sutherland when he was called up to serve in the RAF during World War II.
He was shot down in November 1942 over Holland, captured by the Germans and transferred to the Stalag Luft III camp in Poland.
In 1944, Jack was involved in what became one of the most famous incidents of the war when inmates tunnelled out of the camp.
Their actions were immortalised in the screen classic starring McQueen, James Garner and Richard Attenborough.
On the night of March 24, 1944, some 200 prisoners readied themselves to escape through a tunnel dug over a period of months.
The plot was foiled as the 77th prisoner was escaping.
Jack was number 106 on the escape list and was waiting to go down a tunnel when he heard guards' gunshots.
Unable to escape, Jack quickly burned his forged documentation in the stove and changed his clothing from an engineer disguise back to a PoW.
Of 76 escapees, 73 were captured. Fifty were later executed by the Nazis.
Speaking last year, Jack said: "We were based in block 104, where our tunnel Harry began.
"Harry was the only one that wasn't discovered by the Nazis, because its entrance was hidden underneath the stove."
After the war, Jack returned to his wife Jean, whom he'd married in 1940, and resumed his career as a teacher in Glasgow.
He is survived by his two children, Chris and Jane, and two grandchildren, Mark and Stuart.
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/2010/06/08/last-surviving-hero-of-the-great-escape-dies-aged-97-86908-22318442/