Thomas Youens

Neville McGarr was born in Johannesburg in 1917. His family moved to Durban in 1923. At the age of 12, he contracted polio and was paralysed from the waist down. He spent eight months in hospital and learnt to walk again, and according to Jonathan Vance in The Gallant Company, whereas a “lesser boy might have given upNeville’s determination saw him through, and he was left with nothing more than flat feet and a slight numbness in the legs”. McGarr attended Glenwood High School from 1930, matriculating in 1935. He won awards for academic achievements and for rugby, where he was noted for his hard tackles. After leaving school, McGarr worked at Lever Brothers and later in the finance department of the municipality. He also served in the naval reserve. He joined the SAAF in May 1940, and on being commissioned in 1941, was posted to Egypt. On October 6, his Curtis-Tomahawk fighter was shot down but he managed to parachute into the desert. He spent three days heading for Allied lines and was only a few kilometres short when captured by the Germans. On arrival at Stalag-Luft III, he offered his services to Big X as a tunnel digger but was asked to help in supervising tunnel security. On the night of the escape, McGarr got stuck in the tunnelhe was bulked up with food and extra clothes. His escape was foiled mainly by the weather conditions. Deep snow forced many of the escapers onto open roadsalready hungry, exhausted and disoriented, they were easily captured.