The Brunswick Prison Camp Map Printers project was launched around three years ago by stonemason and sculptor Mark Evans, whose father Philip Radcliffe-Evans constructed a lithographic press during a period in a POW camp in Germany during the war out of shower tiles and printed hundreds of escape maps.

Radcliffe-Evans, who died in 1992, went on after the war to become managing director of Liverpool-based printer and bookbinder Tinlings.

Evans learned of his father’s wartime activities after finding an article he had written on the subject in the Printing Review in 1951. He held on to the article until a chance meeting with one of Radcliffe-Evans’ old apprentices, Ken Burnley, who runs Liverpool-based letterpress studio Juniper Press. Burnley agreed to turn the article and maps into a book, using a Vandercook No.4 Western press with 135gsm Colorplan paper donated by GF Smith.

The 150-run letterpress edition of the book will be launched at an event in Liverpool on Sunday 26 March and is already taking pre-orders. There will also be a 250-run digital facsimile printed by Wallasey-based LT Print Group on a Ricoh Pro C9100. Evans has contributed a foreword and Burnley has penned the afterword.

“The book is a very appropriate tribute to my father, he loved letterpress and loved the trade. He also had great affection and respect for anything made by eye and hand, and with time and skill,” said Evans. 

“There is lots of goodwill in the project and a lot of interest, from people who directly remembered my dad, which is really sweet.

“I’m sending books to Wisconsin, Idaho and New York, it’s a very niche project and they are lovely objects. Ken’s done really well and the whole thing was composited by two guys who were also apprentices to my dad. They came in on Saturday mornings to do it for free and hadn’t composited for years.”

The two compositors, Eddie Gill and Phil Kelly, formerly worked under Radcliffe-Evans for Tinlings.

Radcliffe-Evans (right) with former UK prime minister Harold Wilson at Tinlings

Radcliffe-Evans, who trained at the London School of Printing before the war, was captured during the Siege of Tobruk, Libya, and taken as a prisoner of war, first to Italy and then Germany. It was here in 1942, at Oflag-79, Brunswick-Querum prison camp, that he fashioned the press. 

His camp was bombed by American friendly fire, which destroyed the bathroom and kitchen block, meaning Radcliffe-Evans and his fellow inmates had to eat off kitchen tiles for a period. When washing them he realised the residue left on the tiles could make a lithographic plate.

“It was one way of getting him through really,” added Evans.

“About 70% of inmates moaned and sat smoking and playing cards, 25% involved themselves in some kind of project and 5% were dead set on escape. He fell into the 25%.” 

With the help of inmates, Radcliffe-Evans set up a printing room and printed 400 to 500 maps throughout 1943 and 1944. If a guard was seen to be approaching, an inmate would whistle and the rest would pretend they had been playing cards.

The book will be launched at the Bluecoat creative studio, Liverpool, on Sunday 26 March at 2pm.