Airey Neave

Neave was the son of Sheffield Airey Neave CMG, OBE (1879–1961), an entomologist, who lived at Ingatestone, Essex, and his wife Dorothy, the daughter of Arthur Thomson Middleton.

His father was the grandson of Sheffield Neave, the third son of Sir Thomas Neave, 2nd Baronet (see Neave baronets).

Lieutenant Colonel Airey Middleton Sheffield Neave, (23 January 1916 – 30 March 1979) was a British soldier, lawyer and Member of Parliament (MP) from 1953 until his assassination in 1979.

During World War II he was the first British prisoner-of-war to succeed in escaping from Oflag IV-C at Colditz Castle, and later worked for MI9.

After the war he served with the International Military Tribunal at the Nuremberg trials.

He later became Conservative MP for Abingdon.

Neave was assassinated in a car bomb attack at the House of Commons.

The Irish National Liberation Army claimed responsibility.

Neave was sent to St. Ronan's School, Worthing, and from there, in 1929, he went to Eton College.

He went on to read Jurisprudence at Merton College, Oxford.

While at Eton, Neave composed a prize-winning essay in 1933 that examined the likely consequences of Adolf Hitler's rise to supreme power in Germany, and Neave predicted then that another widespread war would break out in Europe in the near future.

Neave had earlier been on a visit to Germany, and he witnessed the Nazi German methods of grasping political and military power.

At Eton, Neave served in the school cadet corps as a cadet lance corporal, and received a territorial commission as a second lieutenant in the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry on 11 December 1935.

When Neave went to Oxford University, he purchased and read the entire written works of the general and military theorist Carl von Clausewitz.

When Neave was asked why, he answered: "since war [is] coming, it [is] only sensible to learn as much as possible about the art of waging it".

During 1938, Neave completed his third-class degree.

By his own admission, while at Oxford University, he did only the minimum amount of academic work that was required of him by his tutors.

Neave transferred his territorial commission to the Royal Engineers on 2 May 1938 and following the outbreak of war he was mobilised.

Sent to France in February 1940 with 1st Searchlight Regiment, Royal Artillery, he was wounded and captured by the Germans at Calais on 23 May 1940.

Meanwhile, Neave's commission was transferred to the Royal Artillery on 1 August 1940.

He was imprisoned at Oflag IX-A/H near Spangenberg and in February 1941 moved to Stalag XX-A near Thorn in German-occupied western Poland.

In April 1941 he escaped from Thorn with Norman Forbes.

They were captured near Ilow while trying to enter Soviet-controlled Poland and were briefly in the hands of the Gestapo.

In May, they were both sent to Oflag IV-C (often referred to as Colditz Castle because of its location).

While in Colditz, the French military prisoners asked the Germans to have the Jewish military prisoners separated from the gentile French military prisoners, which resulted in about 80 French Jewish military prisoners being confined in a crowded attic of the castle.

Neave and many British officers were appalled at the French prisoners for this request.

In demonstration of their solidarity with the French Jews, the British invited the French Jews to dinner in the British mess, where Neave made a speech denouncing the prejudice.

Neave made his first attempt to escape from Colditz on 28 August 1941 disguised as a German NCO.

He did not get out of the castle as his hastily contrived German uniform (made from a Polish army tunic and cap painted with scenery paint accompanied with cardboard belt painted silver) was rendered bright green under the prison searchlights.

Together with Dutch officer Anthony Luteyn he made a second attempt on 5 January 1942, again in disguise.

Better uniforms and escape route (they made a quick exit from a theatrical production using the trap door beneath the stage) got them out of the prison and by train and on foot they travelled to Leipzig and Ulm and finally reached the border to Switzerland near Singen.

Via France, Spain and Gibraltar, Neave returned to England in April 1942.

Neave was the first British officer to escape from Colditz Castle.

On 12 May 1942, shortly after his return to England, he was decorated with the Military Cross.

He was subsequently promoted to war substantive captain and to the permanent rank of captain on 11 April 1945.

A temporary major at the war's end, he was appointed an MBE (Military Division) on 30 August 1945, and awarded the DSO on 18 October.

As a result, the earlier MBE appointment was cancelled on 25 October 1945.

After his escape from the Germans, Neave was recruited as an intelligence officer for MI9, supporting underground escape organizations, such as the Pat O'Leary Line and Comet Line in occupied Europe, with equipment, agents, and money; assisting downed Allied airmen and other Allied military personnel evade and escape capture by the Germans.

The family came to prominence as merchants in the West Indies during the 18th century and were raised to the baronetage during the life of Richard Neave, Governor of the Bank of England.

Neave spent his early years in Knightsbridge in London, before he moved to Beaconsfield.