Keith Coster

Lieutenant General Keith Robert Coster ID OBE SSAS ESM (19 April 1920 – 5 June 2012) was a South African army officer who rose to command the Rhodesian Army from 1968 to 1972.

Coster was born on 19 April 1920 in Eshowe, Natal, Union of South Africa. He was educated at Maritzburg College, in Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. After his matriculation at the school in 1936, he enlisted in the Special Service Battalion of the Union Defence Force (UDF) (of South Africa), and was commissioned into the South African Air Force (SAAF) on 6 September 1939. While flying a Mohawk V with 5 Squadron SAAF, he was shot down over North Africa by a Luftwaffe fighter plane, a Bf 109, on 11 July 1942 and was a prisoner of war until 4 May 1945. He was sent to Stalag Luft 111 in 1942 where he was reunited with his old friend Roger Bushell (Big X) just before the camp was liberated in 1945 he helped his neighbour in the next bed Paul Brickhill to successfully hide his manuscript of The Great Escape by wrapping it round his forearm and covering it with plaster of paris.