RAF squadron leader who was real life hero of the ‘Great Escape’

World War II veteran Jimmy James, who died on 19 January, 2008, at the age of 92, was an RAF officer who took part in the prison camp breakout later immortalised in the film The Great Escape.

Military historian Howard Tuck, who was working on a book with Squadron Leader James, said he had been “the country’s greatest living war hero”.

Squadron Leader Jimmy James, of Ludlow in Shropshire, became well-known after his attempt to dig a tunnel out of a Nazi prison camp in Poland was recreated in the classic 1963 film The Great Escape.

He was one of 76 men to escape from Stalag Luft III, on March 24, 1944. However, 50 of them were executed after they were caught and only three men successfully made their way to freedom.

After his recapture, Mr James was interrogated and sent to Sachenhausen concentration camp, near Berlin, from which he made another escape bid – only to be caught again days later.

Mr Tuck said: “The one thing people tend to focus on with him is his role in the Great Escape, but in fact he actually tried to escape 13 times from different camps and prisons during the Second World War.

He also spoke of Sqn Ldr James’ personal qualities: “This guy was truly unique and he was the finest gentleman anyone could ever meet. To me he represented not only an era, but a type of Englishman you rarely meet. He was honest and funny and I used to talk to him like he was 25. He was a legend, there's no doubt about it”

Sqn Ldr James retired from the RAF in 1958, and held posts in Africa, Europe and London as part of the Diplomatic Service until 1975. In recent years, he spent time speaking to young people about his experiences in the RAF and during the war.

He was president of Project 104, which aimed to build a replica of the hut from which the famous Great Escape tunnel began, and in March 2004 he revisited the remains of the camp, located near Zagan in Poland, as a guest of honour.

Describing his return he said: “The huts have been razed to the ground but you can see where we dug, the route of the tunnel and you can still feel the atmosphere of the camp. Having lost 50 comrades, ghosts of the past are inevitably going to rise up.”

He died at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital after a short illness and was survived by his wife of 61 years, Madge.