Tony Hayter
Open-knowledge reference entry
Anthony Ross Henzell Hayter (20 May 1920 – 6 April 1944) was a Royal Air Force Vickers Wellington bomber pilot who was taken prisoner during the Second World War. He took part in the 'Great Escape' from Stalag Luft III in March 1944, but was recaptured and subsequently shot by the Gestapo.
Pre-war life
Hayter was born in Farnborough, Hampshire the son of Lieutenant Colonel Herbert Roche Hayter, D.S.O., and Elsie Helen Evelyn Winterton Hayter. His father, who had seen extensive military service in the Second Boer War (1899–1902) and in World War I, retired when Hayter was aged two. Their family settled at Burghclere Grange, a large rectory and small farm in Berkshire. He grew up in a sporting atmosphere particularly enjoying swimming and yachting. In 1929, he flew in his step-brother's bi-plane aircraft, and it instilled a love of flight in him. He was educated at Marlborough College from 1933 to 1938 and graduated determined to join the Royal Air Force. Late in 1938, he was accepted for a short service commission. After basic training, he commenced his flight training in March 1939.
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This entry incorporates text from “Tony Hayter” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.