Medals of pilot who escaped Nazis by swimming across Rhine while badly wounded up for sale

Telegraph

16-04-2025

The campaign medals of a Second World War glider pilot who escaped the Nazis by swimming across the Rhine despite his horrific wounds are going up for auction.
Sgt George Cawthray landed behind German lines in the Netherlands during Operation Market Garden in September 1944.
After the troops his glider was carrying dispersed for the front near Arnhem, he spent a week patrolling the area before suffering wounds to his face and head.
When the evacuation order was given as the Allied operation soured, he made the treacherous 400-yard crossing to the Allied side of the Rhine, in the process doing a favour for a friend.
Sgt Stanley Lewis had been injured in the fighting and could not swim, and as he knew he would be captured by the Germans, he asked Sgt Cawthray to relay a message to his family.
After reaching Brussels four days later, Sgt Cawthray wrote to them, saying: 'I am very lucky to be alive myself, having had my nose and both lips shot away, as well as bullet wounds in the head. Please don't worry about Stanley – he's being well cared for.'
It is believed that Sgt Lewis survived the war as a prisoner of war and returned home afterwards.
Sgt Cawthray was born in 1913 in Selby, North Yorks, and played first-class cricket for Yorkshire before the war.
He served in the Glider Pilot Regiment and on D-Day he landed behind enemy lines, dropping off men and vehicles.
After recovering from his wounds in 1944, he served in India before resuming his cricket career with Yorkshire and later became groundsman.
He was head groundsman at Headingley in Leeds for the 1975 Ashes Test which was infamous for being abandoned when the pitch was vandalised.
Early on Aug 19, Sgt Cawthray discovered that holes had been dug in the pitch and oil was poured over one end of the wicket. It had been the work of campaigners calling for the release of jailed robber George Davis.
Sgt Cawthray died in 2001 aged 87
Now his campaign medals are to be sold at London-based auctioneers Spink & Son.
Marcus Budgen, head of the Spink & Son medals department, said: 'Sgt Cawthray was one of just a handful of glider pilots who flew into Nazi-occupied Europe on the two most famous events of the Second World War.
'Having shared in D-Day, he then went into action at Arnhem, being one of the lucky few to live to tell the tale.
'One cannot imagine what he was feeling when he swam the mighty Rhine, despite having been gravely wounded in the head and face.
'It was no doubt the drive to deliver the news of his wounded friend home to his wife that got him across that frightening crossing. His services without doubt led to the ultimate victory in Europe.'
His medal group consists of the 1939-45 Star; France and Germany Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45.
They are being sold together with a large archive of original material including his pilot's flying log book detailing all his missions, together with his soldier's pay book, original documents, private letters and his original cloth 'Wings', mounted as worn with metal backing and pin for fixing to uniform, besides silver and enamel sweetheart brooch.
The sale, expected to fetch between £2,800 and £3,200, takes place on April 24.