Bill Goldfinch

Flight lieutenant Bill Goldfinch (19 July 1916 – 2 October 2007) was a Royal Air Force pilot who, with Tony Rolt and Jack Best, designed and built a glider in an attic of Colditz Castle, as part of the most audacious of all the projected escapes from the Second World War's most famous prison camp.

He was born Leslie James Edward Goldfinch, but was always known as Bill. Born at Whitstable, Kent, he was the second son of William James Goldfinch and Ida Goldfinch. His brother Reginald James Jennings Goldfinch emigrated to Australia in 1928 through the "Big Brother Scheme". After Bill's education at Framlingham College in Suffolk, he served as a second lieutenant in the Royal Engineers from 1935 to 1939. He decided to enlist with the start of the Second World War in the RAF he began training at RAF Martlesham Heath, Suffolk, was then sent to Rhodesia and completed his operational training in Egypt.

Posted to No. 228 Squadron RAF, he flew Short Sunderlands where he played an important role during the evacuation of Greece. At Kalamata on 25 April 1941 the plane was overloaded with 72 men and on its second attempt required a five-mile take-off run, and reached Suda Bay, Crete. Goldfinch and his crew were immediately ordered to return to Kalamata. As the aircraft attempted to land in the dark it hit an object in the water and sank. Goldfinch was one of four survivors from the crew of 10. Badly injured, he was taken to a military hospital, where he met Best, who had also crashed off southern Greece. The hospital was then captured by the Germans

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