Squadron Leader Roger Joyce Bushell (30 August 1910 – 29 March 1944) was a South African aviator in the British Royal Air Force.

He masterminded the famous "Great Escape" from Stalag Luft III in March 1944, but was one of the 50 escapees to be recaptured and subsequently shot and murdered by the Nazi German Gestapo secret police.

[2] His father, a mining engineer, had emigrated to the country from Britain and he used his wealth to ensure that Roger received a first-class education.

[3] Keen on pursuing non-academic interests from an early age, Bushell excelled in rugby[citation needed] and cricket and skied for Cambridge in races between 1930 and 1932,[4][5] captaining the team in 1931.

After the war, a black run was named after him in St. Moritz, Switzerland, in memory of his efforts to organize Anglo-Swisso ski meetings.

[6] At an event in Canada, Bushell had an accident in which one of his skis narrowly missed his left eye, leaving him with a gash in the corner of it.

[citation needed] Bushell became fluent in French and German, with a good accent, which became extremely useful during his time as a prisoner of war.

601 Squadron Auxiliary Air Force (AAF),[7] which was often referred to as "The Millionaires' Mob" because of the number of wealthy young men who paid their way solely to learn how to fly during training days (often on weekends).

In October 1939, acting as assistant to Sir Patrick Hastings, he successfully defended two RAF pilots, John Freeborn and Paddy Byrne, court-martialled after the friendly fire incident known as the Battle of Barking Creek.

The permanent staff's duty was to help newly captured Allied aircrew to adjust to life as prisoners of war.

Escape, which was regarded as an important duty of all prisoners of war of officer rank, was never far from his mind and, fortunately, he was in good company with Day and Fleet Air Arm pilot, Jimmy Buckley.

Bushell hid in a goat shed in the camp grounds and, as soon as it was dark enough, he crawled to the wire and made good his escape.

All British and Commonwealth officer POWs were removed from the camp on 8 October 1941 and were entrained for transfer to Oflag VI-B at Warburg.

The two airmen stayed with the Zeithammels in their apartment in the Smichov area of the city while the family tried to make arrangements for their onward journey.

officers were betrayed by a former Czech soldier called Miroslav Kraus, who had had an affair with Blazena some years previously and was working as a Gestapo informer.

[15] At Stalag Luft III, Bushell took over control of the escape organization from Jimmy Buckley, who was being transferred to another camp in Poland.

Burning with hatred after witnessing the terror and suffering inflicted by the Nazis in occupied Prague, and the methods of the Gestapo at first hand, he was determined to wage war from within the camp and strike back at the Germans.

The most radical aspect of the plan was not merely the scale of the construction, but also the sheer number of men that Bushell intended to pass through these tunnels.

[citation needed] Bushell and his partner, Bernard Scheidhauer, among the first few to leave the tunnel, successfully boarded a train at Sagan railway station.

Bushell's name also appears on the war memorial in Hermanus, South Africa, where his parents spent their last years and where they were buried.

For years after Bushell's death, Curzon placed an "In Memoriam" advertisement in The Times of London on his birthday, saying "Love is Immortal, Georgie".

It quoted Rupert Brooke: "He leaves a white unbroken glory, a gathered radiance, a width, a shining peace, under the night."

It was signed "Georgie".Bushell was the basis for the character "Roger Bartlett" in the film The Great Escape (1963), played by actor Richard Attenborough.