By Anna Tomforde
A British war veteran believed to have been the last survivor of the prisoner-of-war breakout immortalised in the film The Great Escape has died, it was reported on Tuesday.
Jack Harrison, one of a number of servicemen who tried to flee Stalag Luft III camp in Germany during World War II, passed away at the age of 97, his care home in Scotland said, according to the Press Association.
His death last Friday was confirmed by his family, it said.
The former Royal Air Force pilot was one of 200 prisoners waiting to go down an escape tunnel, codenamed Harry, on the night of March 24, 1944, when the escape attempt was discovered by German guards.
A total of 76 prisoners managed to flee, but only three reached safety. Fifty of those recaptured were shot.
Harrison had been number 98 on the escape list.
The incident was featured in the blockbuster 1963 film The Great Escape, which starred Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson, James Garner and Richard Attenborough.
Harrison returned to Glasgow, Scotland, after the war to work as a Latin and classics teacher. - Sapa-dpa