HUGO IRONSIDEBrigadier Hugo Ironside, who died on 3 October, 2008, aged 90, was an army tank commander who spent most of the Second World War in prisoner of war camps, including two years at Colditz Castle.He was sent to Oflag IV-C, as it was officially known, because of his part in a break-out at another POW camp in Bavaria and there he joined a raft of experienced escapees determined to get out of the 'escape proof' castle.The elaborate schemes he was involved in included a tunnel through the thick walls down to the sewers and a glider built in secret in a loft intended to fly prisoners straight out of the castle grounds, plans concocted with other famous "guests of the Third Reich" such as Pat Reid, Kenneth Lockwood, Tony Rolt and Douglas Bader.Before being captured, Oxford and Sandhurst-educated Hugo Craster Wakeford Ironside (born 14 July, 1918) was a commissioned intelligence officer in the Royal Tank Regiment. He served in the 3rd Battalion which surrendered near Dunkirk in 1940.He spent time in several POW camps during the course of the war and was one of 65 prisoners who tunnelled out (but were later recaptured) of Eichstätt in Bavaria, leading to him being confined to Colditz.As well as escape attempts, Ironside was stage manager of several amateur drama productions inside the prison, sanctioned by the guards to distract inmates from escaping. When the camp was liberated by American troops in April 1940 (before the audacious glider could be launched) he returned to life as a professional soldier.He commanded the 8th Royal Tank Regiment in the British zone of West Germany in the late 1950s and oversaw its merger with the 8th Battalion. He was given an OBE in 1960, served in the War Office for a spell and retired in 1968 having reached the rank of Brigadier.He was married three times and survived by his third wife, Jane, as well as a son and a daughter from his first marriage.
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