18 Facts About Digby Tatham-Warter

Digby Tatham-Warter was the second son of Henry de Grey Tatham-Warter, a landowner with several estates in the southwest of England.

Digby Tatham-Warter's father fought in the First World War with the Artists Rifles; he was gassed in the trenches and died when Digby Tatham-Warter was 11.

Digby Tatham-Warter passed out of Sandhurst on 21 January 1937 and was commissioned as a second lieutenant into the Unattached List for the British Indian Army with a view to joining the Indian Army due to his family connections.

Digby Tatham-Warter was attached to the 2nd Battalion, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, then serving in India, from 13 March 1937, and subsequently transferred to that regiment 27 April 1938 so that he would be able to continue his hobbies of tiger hunting and pig sticking.

Digby Tatham-Warter was appointed as the company commander of A Company of the 2nd Parachute Battalion, part of the 1st Parachute Brigade of the 1st Airborne Division.

Digby Tatham-Warter's tiger hunting exploits were well known, and his reputation was enhanced as he was able to obtain the use of an American Dakota aeroplane in which he flew all the company officers in the camp to London for a party at the Ritz.

Digby Tatham-Warter took an umbrella with his kit as a means of identification because he had trouble remembering passwords and felt that anyone who saw him with it would think that "only a bloody fool of an Englishman" would carry an umbrella into battle.

Digby Tatham-Warter led his men through the back gardens of nearby houses instead of attempting to advance through the streets and thus avoided the Germans.

Digby Tatham-Warter then noticed the chaplain pinned down by enemy fire while trying to cross the street to get to injured soldiers.

Digby Tatham-Warter got to him and said "Don't worry about the bullets, I've got an umbrella".

Digby Tatham-Warter then escorted the chaplain across the street under his umbrella.

Digby Tatham-Warter disguised them as painters and moved them to Derk Wildeboer's house.

Wildeboer had a fake Dutch identity card made for Digby Tatham-Warter to allow him to pose as Peter Jensen, the deaf-mute son of a lawyer.

Digby Tatham-Warter used the bicycle to visit fellow soldiers in hiding and the Germans did not recognise him despite him helping to push a Nazi staff car out of a ditch and German soldiers being billeted in the same house in which he was staying.

Digby Tatham-Warter then gathered 150 escaped soldiers to head towards the front line.

Digby Tatham-Warter wrote a report on the Battle of Arnhem Bridge that resulted in Lieutenant Jack Grayburn's posthumously receiving a promotion to captain and being awarded the Victoria Cross.

Digby Tatham-Warter created the concept of the modern safari where animals would be photographed rather than hunted.

Digby Tatham-Warter married in 1949 Jane Boyd, daughter of Captain Roderick Bulteel Boyd and granddaughter of Arthur George Egerton, 5th Earl of Wilton, and they had three daughters and several grandchildren.