10 Facts About Nicolas Tindal-Carill-Worsley

Group Captain Nicolas Tindal-Carill-Worsley RAF, was a bomber pilot during the Second World War who helped plan and execute the Great Escape from Stalag Luft III, where he was imprisoned between 1940 and 1945.

Nicolas Tindal-Carill-Worsley was educated at Beaumont College, a Jesuit public school in Berkshire, and Stonyhurst College, Lancashire, before reading Botany at Trinity College, Dublin.

Nicolas Tindal-Carill-Worsley was commissioned as a pilot officer in the Royal Air Force in 1931.

Nicolas Tindal-Carill-Worsley was promoted to flying officer in 1933, and subsequently to flight lieutenant, before promotion to squadron leader in 1938.

Tindal's first cousin, Geoffrey Nicolas Tindal-Carill-Worsley served in the RAF during the Second World War, retiring an air commodore.

Nicolas Tindal-Carill-Worsley was twice capped for the RAF, playing against the Royal Navy at Twickenham in 1933 and 1934.

Nicolas Tindal-Carill-Worsley was shot down on 11 December 1940 at Chateaubriant in occupied France, together with Sergeants E Martin, J McEwan and RP Tebutt.

Nicolas Tindal-Carill-Worsley had originally been on the list of airmen due to escape from the camp in the daring enterprise, but had given his place to a Polish airman whose wife was due to give birth in England.

Nicolas Tindal-Carill-Worsley was appointed commandant of an RAF base in Treviso, Italy, in 1945, before being appointed to a staff position in Palestine, until his retirement in 1948.

Nicolas Tindal-Carill-Worsley was an early pioneer of fruit farming in Ireland, until his orchards were destroyed by Tropical Storm Debbie in 1965.