Great Escape POW found in history society search

"I've watched The Great Escape at Christmas countless times without realising there was a local Berkshire connection to it."

Catherine Sampson runs Berkshire Family History Society and is used to unearthing interesting facts about the heritage of the county's residents.

But her recent find went from an innocuous enquiry about a house's history in Purley, to Stalag Luft III during World War Two in then-Nazi Germany.

Ms Sampson, whose society is celebrating its 50th anniversary with more than 1,200 members across the globe, says she was "completely hooked" by what she uncovered.

"[We] had a few big open days recently, inviting people to come in and start delving into the history of their house," Catherine explains.

She says a couple from Purley "wanted to trace the history of their house which went back to the mid-30s, so not perhaps one of the oldest houses we were looking at, but a very interesting history nonetheless".

Catherine's mission to trace the occupants involved going through censuses, voters rolls, and telephone and trade directories, where she came across the Stevens family.

They lived at the house during the war, and Catherine says this immediately peaked her interest.

"I was looking at it and all three sons fought or served in the war," Catherine remembers.

A name came to light - Patrick Stevens - who was the youngest son, and served in Europe. He was captured by the Germans and sent to Stalag Luft III, the Prisoner of War camp immortalised in the 1963 Steve McQueen film.

"As I'm looking at this on the computer screen I'm thinking 'that sounds really familiar'," Catherine says.

"'Why do I know Stalag Luft III? Is it Colditz?' And then I realised this is where The Great Escape happened."

Not only was Patrick at the camp, he aided in the audacious escape plan, assigned the task of getting rid of the soil that was excavated from the tunnels.

"He's not one that gets out, probably fortuitously, because the Germans shoot 50 of those who escape in retribution," she says.

"He survives the war and goes on to have a career in the RAF."

She calls it an "absolutely brilliant story," and at a recent VE Day 80 celebration in Purley "eight members of the family – three generations – came out to join us as our guests".

Catherine says family history is "not about the names, it's about the stories", and she has discovered more than 10,000 names from her own family history.

She says court records are "a great source of information" but could lead to people finding things they would rather not know.

"I have two murderers within my family, both different lines - very, very distantly related," she says. In both cases the victim was also in her family.

"You just feel tremendous sadness for everybody involved in that - the victim, the perpetrator, and the immediate and wider family."

Catherine says the society started off "very modestly", with "two ladies who were working together, very into family history".

They recruited a few more people through an advert in a local paper and the group grew steadily.

Back then, members had to physically visit record offices and trawl through baptism, marriage and burial registers at churches for information.

"I spent, I felt, years of my life... traipsing around churchyards and graveyards examining and reading every monument to try and find if I could see any names that were in my family past," she says.

"Now is just a blast from how we used to do things."

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