Sir Douglas Robert Stewart Bader
(1910-1982), Air force officerSitter in 15 portraits
Aviator. Despite losing both legs in a flying accident in 1931 Bader rejoined the RAF in 1939 and played a part in victory in the Battle of Britain (1940). Shot down in August 1941 and held as a prisoner of war at Colditz until 1945. In a letter to the photographer Bader wrote 'I was lucky in the war, and got much publicity not because I was any better than the others but because I was the chap with the tin legs...'. Knighted in 1976 for service to the public and the disabled. Paul Brickhill's 1954 biography Reach for the Sky was followed by a film two years later in which Kenneth More played Bader.
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