Groups and Single Decorations for Gallantry


As a Lance Sergeant of the Guards, under British Army rules O’Donnell enjoyed the privileges of a full Sergeant, and it seems that he was not forced to work on a regular basis. O’Donnell escaped from Stalag 20A in August 1940, posing as a member of an Arbeitskommando. He was recaptured the next day.


The MI9 report states that there was an Escape Committee at Stalag 20A, but it is clear that O’Donnell normally prepared his escapes independently and alone. He was older than most of the other prisoners, who tended to form tight-knit groups, as many had served together before they were captured, and as MI9 reported: “there were several senior W.Os. who discouraged all escape talk, as such activities would lead to the Germans imposing restrictions and curtailing existing comforts. Indeed, there were alleged to be certain prisoners who betrayed two escape plans to the Germans.”


In February 1942 O’Donnell allowed himself to be caught out of bounds so that he would be punished by being assigned to a working party. He was sent to a state farm work camp but his escape preparations were noticed and he was returned to his Fort. In August 1942 O’Donnell slipped away from his guards when working outside the camp and started walking to Warsaw, disguised as a Polish civilian. After four days he was recaptured.


In February 1943 he climbed the wall at Fort 13, but was quickly recaptured. By May he had again obtained a passport, clothing and money. He hid close to the main gate, and when it was dark, climbed over the wall and railings. He caught a train for Danzig but his forged passport did not satisfy a security official on the train. O’Donnell was then confined indefinitely in Fort 16, but managed to find Poles who were prepared to help him. He escaped in November 1943 by bluffing the guard and spent the next ten days in Thorn city, trying to obtain a satisfactory passport. He was recognised and recaptured by a Gestapo official who had caught him before. O’Donnell was guaranteed his passage to England if he agreed to collaborate with the Germans for six months. He refused this offer.


By February 1944 O’Donnell was ready for another escape. He and one companion hid in a load of Red Cross boxes which were being sent to another P.O.W. camp nearby. With the help of a Pole, they were hidden in a room attached to the German Officers’ Mess but, having failed to obtain forged papers, they decided to travel by train to Gotenhafen. They were discovered near Marienburg. When clothing was being moved from Fort 15 to Thorn in May 1944, O’Donnell hid in one of the sacks and escaped. He put up in a working parties’ camp so that he could forge papers and then set out for Danzig on foot. He was recaptured several days later. Later that year, he managed to pass into the German compound and climb over the perimeter wire. On this occasion he was free for four days.


On 21 January 1945 the Germans started evacuating Stalag 20A, moving the British prisoners westwards on foot. They marched 20-40 km a day, through two or three feet of snow and in freezing temperatures. Frostbite was frequent and many died from dysentery. Shootings and beatings were also frequent. In April 1945, O’Donnell escaped from the P.O.W. column. After eleven days he met advancing British troops in the Bergen area between Hamburg and Hannover in north Germany. Before being flown home, he witnessed the undiluted horror of Belsen concentration camp, shortly after it was liberated by the British.


Posthumous Q.P.M. - gunned down in cold blood in the line of duty


O’Donnell returned to England on 23 April 1945, just after his 34th birthday. Following medical treatment and demobilization, he rejoined the Blackburn Police in December 1946. A year later he became Detective Sergeant and married a local girl. By December 1958, he was a highly commended Detective Inspector and the Head of the Blackburn C.I.D.


At about 11 p.m. on the night of 12 December 1958, a taxi-driver ran into Blackburn police headquarters. He reported that a man, soon identified as Henry King, was in a house in Brewery Street, Blackburn, and was menacing the occupants with a shotgun. Detective Constables Halliwell, Covill and Riley immediately went to the scene in the taxi, and entered the house, No 8 Brewery Street, where King’s estranged wife and her parents lived. As Covill approached him and told King to hand over his gun, King fired, hitting the constable in the groin. Constables Riley and Halliwell immediately dragged their injured colleague out of the kitchen and into the front room. King shot his wife and then shouted: “Get out before someone else gets it! Get out the lot of you!” What the media would describe as “The Siege of Brewery Street” began.


The taxi driver was sent back to the police station to summon assistance. Detective Inspector O’Donnell arrived at the scene, along with a host of police reinforcements. He had previously arrested the gunman, and therefore knew that Henry King was a petty criminal. He persuaded King to let him and another Inspector enter the unlit kitchen, where they found King standing over his dead wife. After about ten minutes, King said that he would make a statement, and O’Donnell took out his notebook and a pencil. He held the notebook in his left hand and the pencil in his right hand. In order to pacify King, he agreed to write down any statement which he cared to make. King spoke in an incoherent manner, saying something to the effect that O’Donnell was not writing, then, without the slightest warning or provocation, King raised the gun and shot O’Donnell.


O’Donnell shuffled on his buttocks through the doorway into the front room. He was badly hurt and in great pain. He was rushed to Blackpool Royal Infirmary, where an emergency operation was performed on a gun shot wound to the left side of the lower part of his chest, which had caused severe lacerations to the large and small intestines. During the afternoon O’Donnell’s condition deteriorated, and despite a further emergency operation he died at about 11.45 p.m. on 13 December. A post-mortem stated the cause of death to be shock and haemorrhage from a gunshot wound to the lower left chest and abdomen.


Meanwhile, King responded to repeated requests to leave the kitchen by threatening to shoot anyone who entered. Rifles were issued to about 30 policemen, a police dog and tear gas grenades were brought in, and King’s brother was sent for. King spoke to him briefly and threw a letter out of the kitchen window. It was written by King’s dead wife to another man, with whom she was romantically involved. After a three hour standoff, at 2.15 a.m. on 13 December orders were given to end the siege. Tear gas was thrown into the kitchen through the window. Immediately afterwards the report of a shotgun was heard. The police dog, accompanied by armed police, entered the house and found King with a gunshot wound to the left side of his chest and his left arm. He was later convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to life imprisonment. He served 18 years.


O’Donnell’s posthumous Q.P.M., was presented to his widow at Buckingham Palace. He is also commemorated by a plaque at Blackburn Police Station, and by the O’Donnell Trophy, a rarely issued reward for police bravery. The Deputy Chief Constable said at O’Donnell’s funeral: “His sense of duty was of the highest order and his loyalty to his colleagues, superiors and subordinates alike was something to be experienced to be believed.”


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