Tunnel man: Arthur Rees

ON THE subject of POWs it was noted Welsh flanker Arthur Rees who is widely thought to have been the original ‘Cooler King’, played by Steve McQueen in The Great Escape when, being Hollywood, the character was changed from Welsh to American.
The diminutive Rees - a former London Welsh and Cheshire flanker and skipper - was piloting a Wellington bomber when shot down and crash landing in a lake in Norway and made himself a thorough nuisance at various POW camps before being sent to Stalag Luft 111 in Silesia.
Being short and Welsh it was assumed that he...