Lockdown in 2020 provided an opportunity for Alistair Price, a resident of Henley in Arden, to dig through the boxes left by his father Kenneth.

He found a mine of information which revealed a previously unknown history and led to him writing about his father's experiences of the Second World War, including his involvement in the Great Escape from Stalag Luft 111.

Alistair recently gave a talk to members of Warwick Rotary Club, many of whom were of an age where their fathers had served in the war, but not talked about it.

Kenneth, a Coventry lad, enlisted in the RAF in 1938 aged 20 and trained at Ansty near Coventry as a navigator.

From 1940 he was in Bomber Command and flew 58 trips before being shot down in July 1943. He was in Pathfinders which laid flares on the target prior to the main bombing mission and was very lucky to survive as the life expectancy of bomber crew was just five trips.

Kenneth was rescued by Dutch resistance but betrayed to the Gestapo and sent to prison camp in Poland at Stalag Luft 111 for nearly two years.

Kenneth George Price, DFC and Bar is available online (image supplied)

Alistair found a complete set of his correspondence at home, including the official telegrams to his parents, as well as photos with his fellow prisoners, and copies of camp newsletters.

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He had assisted with the Great Escape as a 'penguin' dispersing the sand around camp and was number 182 on the escape list through the tunnel – Harry, which was aborted when escapee no 77 was spotted and shot at by a guard.

Of the 76 escapees only three managed to return home, the others were rounded up and 50 executed, with just 23 returning to Camp.

Kenneth returned home in 1945, got married, and worked at the Civil Aviation Authority in London until he retired in 1978 on health grounds.

He died quite young in 1980 due to a great extent to the privations of being a POW. He was able to visit a Lancaster bomber at Hendon Air Museum in March 1980, in which he had flown in July 1943.

Copies of Alistair's book "Kenneth George Price, DFC and Bar" are available for sale and can be bought via Amazon.

Rotary president Keith Talbot presented Alistair with a donation from the club for the RAF Benevolent Fund.