An actor famous for playing bumbling comic characters in the legendary Carry-On films hid an extraordinary past that saw him take part in the iconic Great Escape prison camp breaks during World War 2.
Peter Butterworth was best known by TV and cinema audiences for his quirky portrayal of different roles in 16 films from the long-running comedy film franchise.
But as a young man hailing from Cheshire, Peter had joined the RAF to fight the Nazis and rose to the rank of lieutenant in the RAF before being captured after his aircraft was shot down in 1940.
He was taken as a prisoner of war and, along with scores of other airmen, sent to the Stalag Luft III camp in Poland.
On March 24, 1944, Peter was part of an incredible feat that saw 76 of those brave RAF men escape from the camp using a network of tunnels they had dug themselves.
Their exploits were immortalised in the 1963 war film, The Great Escape, starring Steve McQueen, James Garner and Richard Attenborough.
But despite his acting credentials, Peter himself was rejected for a part in another film covering the prison escape called the Wooden Horse. Makers of the picture reportedly thought he was not “convincingly heroic or athletic enough”.
However, Peter, who died in 1979, went on to become a household name in Carry On films sharing the screen with the likes of Barbara Windsor and Sid James.
The Mail Online reports Peter’s amazing war exploits involved adding coded messages to correspondence prisoners were allowed to send home to loved ones. His code was so good researchers only cracked it 70 years later.
Dr Will Butler, of the National Archives, told the paper Butterworth’s name was on an archived list of ‘Code Letter Writers’.
He said: “He was a talented artist and is noted in the camp records as a very highly skilled forger of documents.
“We had photos of people performing in the camp theatre, but we did not realise Peter Butterworth was in them until we showed them to his son, Tyler.
“Peter was also responsible for creating sets in the theatre, where the soil from the tunnelling was hidden under the seats.”
