Dick Howe

Captain Richard Herbert "Dick" Howe MBE, MC (died 1981) was a British army officer during World War II.^[1] He was captured by the Germans in 1940 and eventually held in Oflag IV-C, at Colditz Castle, where he served as Escape Officer from 1942 to 1945.^[2]

Biography

Howe was educated at Bedford Modern School,^[3][4] and having first served as a lance corporal on the Officers' Training Corps at Bedford, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Royal Tank Corps on 13 May 1933.^[5]

In 1940 Howe was serving in the British Expeditionary Force, as a lieutenant, and temporary captain, in the 3rd Royal Tank Regiment, when he was awarded the Military Cross.^[6][7]

After being captured following the Siege of Calais, he was imprisoned at Oflag VII-C at Laufen. Howe was one of six British officers who escaped, but were eventually recaptured. Howe and the rest of the "Laufen Six" — Harry Elliott, Rupert Barry (later Sir Rupert Barry), Pat Reid, Anthony "Peter" Allan and Kenneth Lockwood — were then sent to Colditz.^[8] Howe later replaced Reid as Escape Officer, co-ordinating all escape plans, after Reid himself escaped in October 1942. Howe remained a prisoner until the end of the war, but his efforts were recognized by being made a Member of the Order of the British Empire in June 1946.^[9]

References