not titled [L. Lawler]

This drawing is a caricature of Flight Lieutenant Leslie John Lawler (service number 419318), a textile operator from Carlton, Victoria who enlisted on the 18th of July 1942 at age 27 and embarked Brisbane for the UK on 20th April 1943. He flew with the RAAF 460 squadron who joined the Royal Air Force's Bomber Command in Britain in a strategic bombing campaign against Germany. On the night of 20th January 1944 he worked as a gunner in a Lancaster participating in the Battle of Berlin. The Lancaster was attacked by a German night-fighter and caught fire. All of the crew ejected safely except for the pilot, Flight Sergeant A.J. Lynch and engineer Sergeant Mortimer who were both killed. Lawler was captured by German forces near Neubrandenberg along with his fellow crew, Flight Sargeant H. Trinder, Flight Sargeant J. Cassidy and Flight Officer J.D. Vaughan and taken to Stalag Luft III prisoner of war camp, where this caricature was drawn. After the liberation of Stalag Luft III, Lawler arrived in the UK in May 1945 and was repatriated to Australia, arriving in July 1945.

The artist of this drawing was 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 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.