Richard Pape was born in Yorkshire in 1916. He worked as a journalist on the Yorkshire Post but on the outbreak of the Second World War he joined the Royal Air Force.

Pape trained as a navigator and was posted to 15 Squadron based at Wyton. He was shot down while returning from an air raid on Berlin on 7th September 1941. The aircraft crashed near the Dutch border and with the help of the resistance he initially evaded capture.

Pape was eventually captured by the Germans and became a prisoner of war. He escaped twice but both times he was recaptured. The second time he was tortured by the Gestapo. Pape was repatriated to Britain on health grounds in 1944.

After the war Pape wrote several books including the best-selling Boldness by my Friend (1952). In 1965 Pape returned his military medals to the Queen in protest against the award of the MBE to the Beatles. Richard Pape died in Australia on 19th June, 1995.