not titled [Fl/Lt H.T. Lambie]

This drawing is a caricature of Flight Lieutenant Hugh Tannahill Lambie (service number 401517) in uniform with a scarf around his neck, holding a piece of smouldering toast on a plate. The caricature was drawn by H.S.W. (Bill) Fordyce in the Stalag Luft III prisoner of war (POW) camp in Poland. It is signed by Lambie in the lower right corner. Lambie was a linotype operator from Ellwood, Victoria who completed his apprenticeship with the Herald and Weekly Times and worked at their Flinders Street address. He enlisted with the Royal Australian Air Force in 1941 in Melbourne at the age of 23. Lambie served with the 450 Squadron who were nicknamed the "Desert Harassers" and were one of the most famous Royal Australian Air Force squadrons of the Second World War. He also served with the 458 Squadron and while flying with 458 Squadron on the 24th of March 1943 was listed as missing and taken as a prisoner of war. He was held by German forces in the Stalag Luft III camp in Poland where 'The Great Escape' took place. Lambie survived his imprisonment and arrived back in Australia on the 10th of September 1945 in Sydney.

This artist of this drawing was drawn by Bill Fordyce, a survivor from 'The Great Escape', a mass escape of World War II allied prisoners made famous by the movie starring Steve McQueen. Fordyce, a pilot and commercial artist, was captured and imprisoned in Italy and then moved to Stalag Luft III in Poland with other captured RAAF aviators. It was from here that he and 200 other men planned to escape. They dug elaborate tunnels and eventually succeeded in staging a mass breakout. German guards discovered the escape operation and recaptured 50 of the 76 allied prisoner escapees, including five Australians, who were all shot and killed on orders of Hitler. Fordyce was billeted to be the 86th escapee and was the last into the tunnel. He made it back through the tunnel and into the camp undetected after German guards discovered the escape and began to shoot into the tunnel. Fordyce produced a series of caricatures of his fellow prisoners of war in Stalag Luft III. Drawn with dignity and care, the caricatures include symbols related to each man's personality and story.