He was the model for Steve McQueen’s character in the classic movie but William Ash, who died this week, was remarkable for much more than that.
If anyone was the real Steve McQueen character Virgil Hilts in the 1963 film The Great Escape it was the indomitable figure of William Ash. That was the conclusion of author Tim Carroll in his book The Dodger of Second World War hero Ash, who has died aged 96.
William Ash had a remarkable life filled with adventure and excitement. He flew Spitfires and was shot down over France. He narrowly escaped execution in one of the Nazis’ most notorious jails. He worked as a journalist and as a cub reporter saw the dead bodies of outlaws Bonnie and Clyde in their bullet-ridden car.
He gained two university degrees – including one from Oxford – and even co-formed a political party. And most famously of all the brave and irreverent Texan was a multiple escapee from German PoW camps throughout the war.
Unlike many British officers held prisoner in the Stalag Luft III camp Ash did not come from a privileged background. Born into a lower middle-class family in Dallas in 1917 he worked in a succession of dead-end jobs when growing up, trying to save enough money to give himself a proper education.
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