The dashing aviator: the formal portrait Bill sent home in 1941.

Bill, aged seven or eight, with his beloved sister Adele at home in Dallas in 1925.

Underneath the surface insouciance Bill was an outstanding pilot. His seriousness shows through in this image, perhaps taken during training.

Bill at the controls of his Spitfire in late 1941.

Canadian Prime Minister Mackenzie King greets Bill during a visit to 411 Squadron.

The squadron at Digby with Bill seated on the far right.

At dispersal, waiting for action, Digby, late summer 1941. Bill is on the far right, looking up.

‘Hostile to the Enemy’: 411 pilots in Mae Wests just before or after an operation. Bill is fourth from left.

Squadron Leader Stan Turner with trademark pipe.

Bill is entertained by a line-shooting Buck McNair.

The church at Vieille Église today, behind which Bill crash-landed …

… and the house where the Boulanger family who sheltered Bill once had their estaminet.

The cover of Bill’s prisoner-of-war file at Stalag Luft III. The bruises from his beating at the hands of the Gestapo in Paris are still clearly visible.

An angelic-looking Paddy Barthropp.

Sketch map of Stalag Luft III, scene of ‘The Great Escape’.