Alex Lees RIP

Kyt · Apr 30, 2009

Alex Lees: PoW at Stalag Luft III | Times Online Obituary

An army prisoner of war serving in the ranks who was transferred to the air force officers’ camp Stalag Luft III in Silesia as a member of a working party, Alex Lees played an enabling role in the now legendary Great Escape of March 1944, by helping to dispose of the earth from the tunnels which were dug out under the wire.

With other PoWs of the working party, who it was understood would not take part in the escape attempt itself, he helped to carry away tons of earth in bags hanging round his neck, and then was intrumental in surreptitiously disposing of it on the vegetable patches within the grounds of the camp.

Since he had been transferred to Stalag Luft III as part of a gardening detail, his raking down the soil was not immediately calculated to cause suspicion among the camp guards.

After months of work the main escape tunnel, “Tunnel Harry”, was finally ready and on the night of March 24, 1944, a moonless night the would-be escapers had selected to give them their best chance, the escape attempt began as night fell. Out of the 100 men it was thought might escape before daylight, 76 had succeeded in crawling to freedom beyond the wire when at 4.55 am on the 25th the 77th man was spotted emerging from the tunnel.

The alarm was raised and a search and pursuit operation began. In the event three of the escapers managed to get clean away to “friendly” territory, and the remainder were captured by German units. Of these, 50 were shot by the Gestapo on Hitler’s orders, to deter further escape attempts.

Alex Lees was born in Manchester where he spent the first 11 years of his life before his family returned to Scotland where he was educated at Camphill High School in Paisley.

After leaving school he worked in a number of Glasgow insurance companies, including the Northern Assurance Company, before joining the Royal Army Service Corps in 1940. The following year he was captured by German units during the campaign in Greece.

After sojourns in various PoW camps he was sent as part of a 100-strong work detail to Stalag Luft III. There, as the camp’s gardener, his job during the run-up to the Great Escape was to use his job as a cover for getting rid of the spoil from the tunnels unobtrusively.

After being repatriated from Stalag Luft III in 1945 he returned to his life in insurance in Scotland, finally retiring in 1969 as life and pensions superintendent at what was by then the Commercial Union. Latterly he had lived in a care home for ex-service personnel in Erskine, Renfrewshire.

His wife Isobel, whom he married in 1946, predeceased him. He is survived by a son and daughter.

Alex Lees, war veteran, was born on July 11, 1911. He died on April 22, 2009, aged 97
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Antipodean Andy · Apr 30, 2009

One of the unsung men behind the escape. He made it possible. RIP.

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Alex Lees RIP

Kyt Άρης

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