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Name: BEST, John William 'Jack'

Birth Date: 6 Aug 1912 Llangollen

Death Date: 21 Apr 2000 Hereford

Profession: Farm manager, Naivasha

Area: 1946 Gethi Farm

Married: 1. In East Retford, Notts. 6 Aug 1938 Mary Constance 'Consie' Otter b. 13 Aug 1918 Clayworth, Notts., d. 25 Sep 2012; 2. 4 Sep 1939 Dr Mary Elizabeth Corbin née Bunting (prev. m. to John Ogilvie Corbin 1910-1971)

Children: one dau; one son (1st marriage)

Book Reference: Sitrep 2

War Service: RAF

General Information:

Gazette 6 Dec 1938 Rift Valley Voters List
Pre-war volunteer to the Kenya Regiment (KR 543). Hut - Colditz.
Hereford Times 27 Apr 2000 John William Best was born on August 6 1912 near Llangollen in North Wales and grew up on the family estate. When the war began, he trained with the RAF before becoming a ferry pilot, flying across Africa. It was during a flight in 1941 that he ran out of fuel and was captured by German soldiers. After the war, he was awarded the military MBE and moved to Kenya before returning to Herefordshire to farm in 1962. Eventually he retired to his Ivington home with wife Elizabeth.
New York Times 30 Apr 2000 Jack Best, one of the last survivors of the audacious group of British prisoners in World War II who constructed a glider under the noses of their Nazi captors in order to fly from the roof of their prison to freedom, died April 22 in a hospital in Herefordshire, England. He was 87. Before the glider could be put to the test, the notorious Colditz prison, a huge Saxon castle near Leipzig in eastern Germany where Mr. Best and many other British airmen were imprisoned, was liberated by American forces in 1945. But because the plan was so daring and its secrecy so effective, it has become one of the legends of World War II. Last winter, Mr. Best was a consultant for Channel Four, a British commercial television channel, when it constructed a full-scale replica of the glider with its 32-foot wingspan and flew it for a documentary called ''Escape From Colditz.'' The original glider had been broken up and used for firewood at the war's end. Later this year, the glider replica, together with some of the actual tools Mr. Best made to help construct it, and other memorabilia, will go on display at the Imperial War Museum in London.
Web Flight Lieutenant John William Best MBE, (known as Jack Best) (6 August 1912 – 22 April 2000) was a British Royal Air Force pilot. He was a notable Prisoner of War, who was held captive at Colditz Castle in east Germany during World War II. Best was noted for his several attempts to escape from Colditz and for his part in building the Colditz Cock, a glider from which he hoped to escape by air.Jack Best was born near Llangollen in North Wales and grew up there. He moved to Kenya as a young man where he was a farmer. When the war began in 1939, Best joined the RAF and was trained as a pilot. During one of his flights across Africa in 1941, his plane ran out of fuel off the coast of Greece and he was captured by German soldiers. He was taken to Stalag Luft III, the prison made famous in the movie The Great Escape. Best and another prisoner dug a tunnel and escaped to Poland where they were captured. On 9 September 1942, they were taken to Colditz Castle where other escapees were taken because German commanders believed the thick rock walls of Colditz would prevent escape.

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