Madness of Courage: The Exceptional Achievements of Gilbert Insall

Join acclaimed intelligence historian Dr Tony Insall as he shares the gripping true story of his great-uncle – one of the first pilots to be awarded the Victoria Cross.

Group Captain Gilbert Insall holds a unique record as the only person to have been awarded a Victoria Cross and to have successfully escaped from a German prisoner-of-war camp during the First World War.

Commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Royal Flying Corps in 1915, Gilbert ended his long and eventful military career in 1945 as a group captain in the Royal Air Force.

In this talk, Tony Insall will delve into his great-uncle’s remarkable adventures in prison breaking, which included tunnelling out of Heidelberg prison camp and later hiding among boxes on a horse-drawn cart to evade capture in Crefeld.

At the time, conditions for prisoners of war were often dire, and the British War Office provided little assistance for escapees. Tony will show how Gilbert’s family, with the support of French intelligence, helped him achieve an extraordinary feat of bravery, resilience and ingenuity.

About the speaker

Dr Tony Insall has over 30 years’ experience in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, with service in Nigeria, Hong Kong, China and Malaysia. He is a senior visiting fellow in the Department of War Studies at King’s College London and a fellow of the Royal Historical Society. He has published several books and articles on Anglo-Norwegian wartime resistance cooperation.