Charles Clarke was a Lancaster bomb-aimer shot down in February 1944.  By early March he had reached Stalag Luft III a few weeks before the mass break out that saw 76 men escape through a tunnel.  All bar three were recaptured and 50 were murdered by the Gestapo.  Throughout his life he worked hard to commemorate their memory and returned to the remains of the camp on a number of occasions, the most recent just three months before he died on May 7.  After the war he had a long career as a supply officer seeing service overseas including the withdrawal from Aden in 1967.  He donated much of his retirement to RAF charities including the Bomber Command Association, the RAF POW’s Association and the RAF Benevolent Fund.

In the photograph he is in the back row second from the right.

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