24 Facts About Tex Banwell

Sergeant Keith Deamer "Tex" Banwell was a soldier in the British Army in the Second World War.

Tex Banwell is best known for serving as a political decoy for Field Marshal Sir Bernard Montgomery, and for being imprisoned in Auschwitz.

Tex Banwell's father served with the Australian Imperial Force, and Banwell lived in Australia from 1920 until he returned to England in 1936 to join the Coldstream Guards.

Tex Banwell later transferred to 1st Battalion, the Hampshire Regiment, and served in India, Palestine and then Egypt, where he was a temporary physical training instructor, and was given the nickname "Tex".

Tex Banwell was captured in 1942 during a raid on Tobruk, but he and a friend stole a German vehicle and escaped back to British lines.

Tex Banwell was captured a second time during a raid on Crete.

Tex Banwell was dressed up in a similar uniform to Montgomery, and driven around North Africa as Montgomery's double to confuse German spies.

Tex Banwell was taller than Montgomery, so was instructed to remain seated in a vehicle while out in public.

Bored with this role, Tex Banwell joined the 10th Battalion, Parachute Regiment.

Tex Banwell became an accomplished cross-country runner and boxer, and was practised in judo.

Tex Banwell was a platoon sergeant when he took part in Operation Market Garden in September 1944.

Tex Banwell was wounded and captured, but escaped during the journey to a prisoner of war camp with Lieutenant Leo Heaps of the 1st Battalion, Parachute Regiment, and Staff-Sergeant Alan Kettley of the Glider Pilot Regiment.

Tex Banwell agreed to become a weapons instructor, demonstrating how the Dutch should use their new British weapons, while the other two escaped.

Tex Banwell took the codename "Tex", and was involved in several resistance ambushes of the occupying Germans - including an action near the town of Putten on 1 October 1944, after which 600 local men were arrested and deported to Neuengamme concentration camp.

Tex Banwell refused to betray his friends and faced two dummy firing squads before he was sent to Auschwitz concentration camp.

Tex Banwell survived four months of a starvation diet, confined in a 6 foot square cage.

Tex Banwell was then moved to Fallingbostel, where he was liberated by the Red Army in March 1945, having lost half his body weight.

Tex Banwell rejoined the 10th Battalion, Parachute Regiment when it was reformed as a Territorial Army unit in 1947, and continued to serve in the British Army until the 1970s, retiring as a sergeant.

Tex Banwell then joined the Post Office, and served as a special constable.

Tex Banwell continued parachuting as a hobby, and made his 1,000th jump at Arnhem in September 1984, and his 1,001st and final jump in Arnhem in 1994 for the 50th anniversary.

Tex Banwell was awarded the British Empire Medal in the 1969 New Year Honours and the Dutch Resistance Memorial Cross in 1982.

Tex Banwell married his first wife, Winifred, on 4 March 1944; they had a son and two daughters.

Tex Banwell's survivors included the three children of his first marriage, and his second wife, Elsie.

Tex Banwell's ashes were buried in the Airborne Cemetery in Oosterbeek in September 1999, and his battledress jacket and medals are on display at the Airborne Museum at the former Hotel Hartenstein in Oosterbeek.