Donald Caskie was a member of the Pat O'Leary escape line which helped up to 500 Allied sailors, soldiers and airmen to escape from Occupied France.
15 Facts About Donald Caskie
1.
2.
At the British Seamen's Mission in Marseilles, Donald Caskie set up a refuge for stranded Britons.
3.
Donald Caskie came under the suspicion of the Vichy France and German authorities, and a fellow Briton betrayed him.
4.
Donald Caskie headed for Grenoble, where he was employed by the university, and acted as a chaplain for interned British soldiers and resident civilians.
5.
The Germans later ordered that all British-born civilians in the occupied countries be interned in Germany; Donald Caskie managed to influence an Italian commandant to release many of them.
6.
Donald Caskie was arrested again and spent some time in Italian custody at Sanremo, held in the old fortress prison.
7.
Donald Caskie then spent the rest of the war in a Prisoner of War camp, resuming his ministry in Paris after the war.
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The 1950s building proved to have serious defects and had to be again rebuilt in the late 1990s, Donald Caskie's book being again reissued.
9.
Donald Caskie finally returned to Scotland as minister in Old Gourock Church.
10.
Donald Caskie was the subject of This Is Your Life in September 1959 when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews in the foyer of the BBC Television Theatre.
11.
Donald Caskie retired to Edinburgh in the early seventies and lived the final year of his life with his younger brother in Greenock.
12.
Donald Caskie died in 1983 and is buried at Bowmore on Islay.
13.
Donald Caskie was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in June 1945 for services to the Forces in France.
14.
Donald Caskie was honoured by the French government for his wartime service.
15.
In 2018, a play based on Donald Caskie's book was written by Graeme Dallas and John Hughes.