The Madness of Courage - 23 February 2026
Group Captain Gilbert Insall holds a unique record. He is the only person to have both won a Victoria Cross and to have escaped successfully from a German prisoner-of-war camp during the First World War. Tony Insall’s talk will describe how, having brought down a German fighter in aerial combat, Gilbert was himself shot down by ground fire just behind the allied front line. Gilbert ignored intensive German shelling in order to repair his aircraft and return to base. Shortly afterwards, following a dogfight in which he was badly wounded by anti-aircraft shrapnel, he was shot down again and captured. And thus began a distinguished career in prison breaking.
At Heidelberg, he dug a tunnel more than forty yards long, removing and concealing some five tons of earth in the process. At Crefeld, near Dusseldorf, he hid among piles of boxes on a cart transporting prisoners’ luggage to storage. After his transfer to Ströhen, Gilbert and several companions concealed themselves in a claustrophobically small space they had excavated under the floor of the bathhouse and remained there, enduring the heat of a summer day, while a fruitless search for them was being carried out. They emerged early the following morning and reached Holland a few days later in September 1917.
The Madness of Courage is a remarkable story about a remarkable man at time before the Geneva Convention, when conditions for prisoners of war were appalling and the British War Office had not yet realised the advantages that could be gained from helping prisoners to escape. Instead, Gilbert’s family, assisted by French intelligence, gave him the help and support he needed.
Join Dr Tony Insal, visiting professor in the Department of War Studies at King’s College London and a fellow of the Royal Historical Society, in the Museum to find out more.
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Group Captain Gilbert Insall holds a unique record. He is the only person to have both won a Victoria Cross and to have escaped successfully from a German prisoner-of-war camp during the First World War. Tony Insall’s talk will describe how, having brought down a German fighter in aerial combat, Gilbert was himself shot down by ground fire just behind the allied front line. Gilbert ignored intensive German shelling in order to repair his aircraft and return to base. Shortly afterwards, following a dogfight in which he was badly wounded by anti-aircraft shrapnel, he was shot down again and captured. And thus began a distinguished career in prison breaking.
At Heidelberg, he dug a tunnel more than forty yards long, removing and concealing some five tons of earth in the process. At Crefeld, near Dusseldorf, he hid among piles of boxes on a cart transporting prisoners’ luggage to storage. After his transfer to Ströhen, Gilbert and several companions concealed themselves in a claustrophobically small space they had excavated under the floor of the bathhouse and remained there, enduring the heat of a summer day, while a fruitless search for them was being carried out. They emerged early the following morning and reached Holland a few days later in September 1917.
The Madness of Courage is a remarkable story about a remarkable man at time before the Geneva Convention, when conditions for prisoners of war were appalling and the British War Office had not yet realised the advantages that could be gained from helping prisoners to escape. Instead, Gilbert’s family, assisted by French intelligence, gave him the help and support he needed.
Join Dr Tony Insal, visiting professor in the Department of War Studies at King’s College London and a fellow of the Royal Historical Society, in the Museum to find out more.
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