Reginald Van Toen
| Flt Lt Reginald "Van" Van Toen | |
|---|---|
| Born | c1920 |
| Died |
2 October 2003 (aged 83) Sidmouth |
| Education | Boston Grammar School (?-1936) |
| Occupation | Wireless Operator |
| Employer | RAF |
| Spouse | Janet |
| Children | Brett |
| Relatives | One older brother |
Flt Lt Reginald "Van" Van Toen was educated at Boston Grammar School (?-1936).
Prisoner of War
The following piece was written by Jack Birbeck and appeared in the Autumn/Winter 2003 issue of The Old Bostonian
<Reginald> left school in 1936 to join the RAF as a boy entrant. Later, in my last year at BGS, the 5th Form were taken on a visit to RAF Cranwell. There we saw <him> working at a bench in one of the workshops, but because of the prevailing discipline we were unable to have a conversation with him.
The next time I met <him> it was under very different circumstances. In August 1943 I was a member of the crew of a Lancaster shot down over Germany (my Skipper was Cliff Annis, another BGS old boy). I became an inmate of the notorious Stalag Luft III POW camp. One day we were dispersing after roll-call when I heard a voice shouting "What are you doing here Birbeck".
I don't know whether <he> was involved in any escape activities. Everything was very "cloak and dagger" and on a need-to-know basis. I think probably the family included the reference to let readers know that he was in that camp. <This refers to the obituary written by Van Toen's family which referred to "The Great Escape">
Stalag Luft III was in a cleared area of pine trees near the town of Sagan in Upper Silesia (now in Poland). In 1943 there were three compounds: East, the scene of the Wooden Horse escape; Centre compound; and North compound, scene of "The Great Escape". I arrived in the North compound in early September 1943 and we new "kriegies" were immediately given a lecture by the senior British officer, mainly on security and escaping.
At that time there were 3 tunnels in progress: Tom, Dick, and Harry. Soon after I arrived the Germans ("goons" to us) found Tom. It turned out to be in the block where I had been allocated a billet, but I had not known about it. Standard practice when the goons found a tunnel was to blow it up. On this occasion they put too much charge in and blew the roof off the hut, which evoked cheers from the assembled mob.
Shortly afterwards Dick was abandoned and all efforts concentrated on Harry. There were two organisations in the camp: X and S. They were headed by Big "X" and Big "S" with a similar organisation in each block. "X", the escape committee, was headed by Sqn. Ldr. Roger Bushell, one of the 50 officers subsequently shot.
Big "S" looked after security and protected our illegal activities from prying eyes. I was on the "Duty Pilot Rota". This involved sitting at the gate and booking the "goons" in and out, but I had no idea where Harry was situated.
The settings in the film were absolutely authentic. Some of the characters were somewhat over egged and the final scene with Steve McQueen on the motor bike was complete fiction. The book by Paul Brickhill is also authentic. Brickhill was in Stalag Luft III.
Early in 1944 a large number of us including known trouble makers were moved to a satellite camp on the other side of Sagan. Included in the officers moved was Wally Floody, a Canadian mining engineer in civil life and the man in charge of excavating Harry. I was therefore not in the North compound when the breakout occurred.
Obituary
From the Autumn/Winter 2003 issue of The Old Bostonian
Reginald Van Toen died on 2nd Oct 2003 at Sidmouth, aged 83. He leaves Janet, his wife of 57 years, and his son Brett. A funeral service was held at Exeter Crematorium, St Peter's Chapel on Monday 13th October.
The younger of two sons of a newsagent on Horncastle Road, at BGS Reginald was a chess champion, gained the Northern Universities Higher School Certificate, and won the Mathematics prize.
He left the school in 1936 to join the RAF where he trained as a Wireless Operator. In 1942, while still in operational training, he was involved in the first 1,000 bomber raid on Cologne. In order to achieve the required number of bombers, all available aircraft from Training Command were used.
Unfortunately Reginald's crew was shot down and he spent the rest of the war as a POW in Stalag Luft III; the scene of "The Great Escape" and "The Wooden Horse" escape.