Commissioned in the
Royal Marines on 1 September 1934, 'Griff' was on off the coast of Spain during the
Spanish Civil War. In 1938 his elder brother was killed in the Indian Army. He took up flying in January that year and was eventually assigned to
803 Naval Air Squadron flying
Blackburn Skua dive-bombers aboard .
Second World War Eleven days into the
Second World War, HMS
Ark Royal picked up an
SOS from the merchant ship
SS Fanad Head, under attack from
German submarine U30. Three Skuas, including one piloted by Griffiths, conducted the first British Naval bombing of the war. Due to the incorrect fuse arming in relation to the height of attack, the bomb explosions of Griff's aircraft and that of Lieutenant Thurstan RN damaged the tails of both planes, and they crashed into the sea with the loss of each air observer. Griff and Thurstan were the first naval officers captured in the war. At the time of their capture, the
prisoner of war camp infrastructure was only just developing; those in captivity found their conditions relatively relaxed. Griff was placed in a number of POW camps – including Spangenburg Castle (
Oflag IX-A/H) and
Dulag luft – before incarceration in
Stalag Luft III. Stalag Luft III achieved worldwide notoriety thanks to
The Great Escape released in 1963. During Griff's time in captivity there, he put his considerable artistic skills to good use. He was a forger, producing fake documents as required, and he also produced detailed paintings of aeroplanes based on aspects of those in current production, to provide misinformation to the enemy in order to buy time. Griff was also in contact with
MI9 (British Military Intelligence Section 9) – his letters to the
Globe & Laurel (the Royal Marines Corps' publication) contained encrypted details for MI9 of identities of personnel in the camp. Griff spent the remainder of the war in
Stalag Luft III. In 1945 he led the captives of his camp out to the Americans after being mistaken by Germans as being a Hungarian officer.
Post-war Following the war, Griff underwent significant re-training to fly the latest aircraft. Once flying again, he served aboard . During the
Korean War, he was instrumental in providing the first visual confirmation of a downed MiG 15 jet, which led to the first capture of this type by the west. In later years, from 1953 to 1958, Griff became the Editor of the
Globe & Laurel publication. He also ran the
Bolero coffee shop in
Chichester (West Sussex, England). Between 1969 and 1980, he was domestic superintendent for the Royal West Sussex Hospital, and subsequently the whole Chichester district. Griff died from a heart attack on 12 July 1999 aged 84. The complete collection of watercolours and drawings he completed during his service career were subsequently bequeathed to the
Royal Marines Museum. ==Publications==