Damiaen Joan van Doorninck

Damiaen J. van Doorninck (29 August 1902 – 24 September 1987[1]) was a Dutch officer (lieutenant commander in the Royal Netherlands Navy Reserve) and a prisoner of war in Colditz.

In May 1940 he was aide de camp to the Dutch supreme commander, General Henri Winkelman.

He was conversant in cosmography and advanced mathematics, and he lectured interested Dutch and British prisoners at Oflag IV-C in Colditz Castle on both, in particular he taught geodesy to Pat Reid.

While in Colditz, he invented a device which, when attached to a micrometer, could obtain measurements accurate to within a tenth of a millimetre of any lock.

On 9 September 1942 van Doorninck and British Lieutenant Hedley Fowler were among the lucky few who escaped Colditz.