Uploaded June 2021 | Updated September 2026, 16 minutes ago
A pilot with Bomber Command, Ken was shot down over Norway in October 1942 just two weeks after getting married.
He was taken to Stalag Luft III, a prisoner camp designed for captured airmen and the scene of the ‘Great Escape’.
Ken was a digger on the Tunnel ‘Harry’, the longest of all the tunnels and the one used in the escape. In the film of the famous mission, Steve McQueen’s character is said to be based on Ken due to his antagonistic attitude towards his captors, a result of his brother-in-law, Sqn Ldr Harold Starr, being shot and killed while parachuting to safety.
After the war Ken became a flying instructor and later commanded a Valiant V-bomber squadron. In 1967 he commanded the RAF’s island staging post at Gan in the Indian Ocean before retiring a year later. He passed away in August 2014, aged 93.
Among those present at the train-naming ceremony were RAF Air Officer for Wales, Air Commodore Dai Williams, the RAF Queen’s Colour Squadron, and Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Wales, David TC Davies.
A message was also played from Ken’s son Martyn, who lives in Australia and was unable to attend the ceremony because of COVID-19 travel restrictions.
Martyn said:
“The family would like to thank Great Western Railway for commemorating my father today. He was a proud Welshman who served his country during the war and for many years after as an officer in the RAF.
“This wonderful acknowledgement of his service is something about which he would be both bemused and thrilled.”
A pilot with Bomber Command, Ken was shot down over Norway in October 1942 just two weeks after getting married.
He was taken to Stalag Luft III, a prisoner camp designed for captured airmen and the scene of the ‘Great Escape’.
Ken was a digger on the Tunnel ‘Harry’, the longest of all the tunnels and the one used in the escape. In the film of the famous mission, Steve McQueen’s character is said to be based on Ken due to his antagonistic attitude towards his captors, a result of his brother-in-law, Sqn Ldr Harold Starr, being shot and killed while parachuting to safety.
After the war Ken became a flying instructor and later commanded a Valiant V-bomber squadron. In 1967 he commanded the RAF’s island staging post at Gan in the Indian Ocean before retiring a year later. He passed away in August 2014, aged 93.
Among those present at the train-naming ceremony were RAF Air Officer for Wales, Air Commodore Dai Williams, the RAF Queen’s Colour Squadron, and Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Wales, David TC Davies.
A message was also played from Ken’s son Martyn, who lives in Australia and was unable to attend the ceremony because of COVID-19 travel restrictions.
Martyn said:
“The family would like to thank Great Western Railway for commemorating my father today. He was a proud Welshman who served his country during the war and for many years after as an officer in the RAF.
“This wonderful acknowledgement of his service is something about which he would be both bemused and thrilled.”
