- Kenneth Lockwood
Captain Kenneth Lockwood MBE (
17 December 1911 -8 October 2007 ) was astockbroker and an officer in theBritish Army . He was one of the first six British prisoners of war to arrive atOflag IV-C ,Colditz , in 1940. He made and assisted in numerous escape attempts, working with the chairman of the escape committee,Pat Reid , and was still at the castle when it was liberated by theUS Army in April 1945. He was the honorary secretary of the Colditz Association for 50 years.Lockwood was born in
London , the son of a jobber at theLondon Stock Exchange . He was educated atWhitgift School inCroydon , and then worked for his father's firm in theCity of London . He joined theTerritorial Army 's 22nd (County of London) Battalion of theLondon Regiment (The Queen's Royal West Surreys) in 1933. He was mobilized in August 1939 and trained atYeovil before being posted toLe Mans , commanding a company of the 1st/6th Battalion of theQueen's Royal Regiment . After marching with his unit toBelgium , he was captured in the retreat toDunkirk in May 1940.He was sent to
Oflag VII-C , atLaufen Castle . With six other prisoners, including Pat Reid, he dug a tunnel to escape, thought to be the first escape from a Germanprisoner of war camp in theSecond World War . They escaped in two groups of three, with Reid leading the first group and Lockwood in the second group with CaptainHarry Elliott of theIrish Guards and CaptainDick Howe of theRoyal Tank Regiment . All six were recaptured and sent to Colditz Castle, where they became the first British prisoners to join three Canadians, who had arrived the previous day, and over 100 Poles, who had been there since September 1939. Lockwood made and assisted in numerous escape attempts, working with the chairman of the escape committee,Pat Reid . Reid was later replaced as escape officer by Dick Howe, and escaped; Lockwood was still at the castle when it was liberated by the US Army in April 1945.After the war, Lockwood returned to work in the City of London, then moved to work in a Jersey branch office for 10 years. He became the secretary of the Colditz Association, organising regular reunions until the association was wound up in 2006.
In the 1955 film, "
The Colditz Story ", based on Reid's book of the same name, Lockwood was played byRichard Wattis . He received an MBE in 1990. He never married.References
* [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=&xml=/news/2007/10/10/db1001.xml Obituary, "The Daily Telegraph", 10 October 2007]
* [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article2632431.ece Obituary, "The Times", 11 October 2007]
* [http://news.independent.co.uk/people/obituaries/article3052331.ece Obituary, "The Independent", 12 October 2007]
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