Canadian Great Escaper dies in B.C.

A B.C. man who was part of the legendary “Great Escape" has died at the age of 90. John Henry Colwell was among the 250 prisoners of war at the German camp Stalag Luft III who in 1944 attempted to escape after digging and shoring up one of three tunnels. The escape attempt was made famous in the 1963 film “The Great Escape”.

A B.C. man who was part of the legendary “Great Escape" has died at the age of 90. John Henry Colwell was among the 250 prisoners of war at the German camp Stalag Luft III who in 1944 attempted to escape after digging and shoring up one of three tunnels. The escape attempt was made famous in the 1963 film “The Great Escape”.

Colwell was to be the 146th to go, and also participated as a "penguin" in the tunnelling operation. To get rid of much of the 82 tons of dirt without raising suspicion, the men hid it in their pants and then waddled about the prison yard until they could release the dirt through their pant legs.

"The sand was a different colour from the top soil, so you had to be careful to scuff on it so it wouldn't be noticed," he told the Nanaimo Daily News in 2001. The escape was detected at the last minute, and only 76 men got through the tunnel. Three managed to get out of Germany and of the 73 men captured, 50 were later shot.

Colwell was born in India in 1916, and moved to a Vancouver Island farm with his family when he was 16. After the war, he bought the Lantzville, B.C., farm from his parents and spent his life there.