Cy Grant
Cy Grant was born in Guyana, Central America. He came to Britain in 1941 to join the Royal Air Force and was a commissioned officer by 1943. He later became a Prisoner of War and after that a TV personality.
One night, whilst returning from a bombing raid over Gelsenkirchen in Germany when his plane was shot down in Holland. Grant was lucky enough to escape with his life but two of his crew mates weren’t so lucky.
Grant was captured and taken to a POW camp. Due to the Russian advance, this camp was evacuated to another cam at Lukenwalde “A vast complex with prisoners from all the allied forces”.
“I recalled that shortly after my capture a photo of me taken after a period of solitary confinement -a common experience for new arrivals at a camp- appeared in a German newspaper (the Volkischer Beobachter, July 1943) with the words Mitglied der Royal Air Force von unbestimmbarer RasseI – a member of the Royal Air Force of unknown race!”
Eventually Grant managed to escape from the camp and make it to Brussels in Time for V.E day celebrations.
He later went on to become a Qualified Barrister, and then a TV personality.
I would like to point out the following:
1. In 1941 the region referred to in the article was then known as British Guiana not Guyana which was the name given to the region after independence on 26th May 1966.
2. British Guiana or Guyana is in South America not in Central America as stated in your article.