Nicolas Tindal-Carill-Worsley

Group Captain Nicolas Tindal-Carill-Worsley RAF (known as Nicolas Tindal) (7 March 1911 – 28 January 2006), 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.

Background
Tindal was born in Dublin, the son of Commander Ralph Tindal-Carill-Worsley, RN and Kathleen, daughter of Simon Mangan of Dunboyne Castle, HM Lieutenant for County Meath from 1895 to 1905. His father and uncle Charles Tindal-Carill-Worsley had both served on the Royal Yacht and went on to have distinguished careers in the Royal Navy, Charles commanding HMS Prince George during the Gallipoli Campaign in 1915 At the same time, his maternal grandmother's first cousin, Brigadier General Paul Aloysius Kenna, VC, was commanding a brigade in the invasion of Suvla Bay, where he was killed in action in August 1915. Tindal was born to a distinguished family. Amongst his ancestors were Lord Chief Justice Sir Nicolas Tindal, Erasmus Darwin, and Charles Worsley.

Early Life
He was educated at Beaumont College, a Jesuit public school in Berkshire, and Stonyhurst College, Lancashire, before reading Botany at Trinity College, Dublin. While at Trinity, he befriended Oliver St John Gogarty and learned to fly. He was commissioned as a Pilot Officer in the Royal Air Force in 1931. He was promoted to Flying Officer in 1933, and subsequently to Flight Lieutenant, before promotion to Squadron Leader in 1938. Tindal's first cousin, Geoffrey Tindal-Carill-Worsley also served in the RAF during WWII, retiring an Air Commodore. His kinsman, Wing Commander Archie Tindal, was the first Australian airman to be killed on the Australian mainland in the War and gave his name to a RAAF air base.

In the mid-1930s, while stationed at RAF Grantham, Tindal played rugby for Leicester. He was also twice capped for the RAF, playing against the Royal Navy at Twickenham in 1933 and 1934.

Tindal became a flying instructor in 1938, where his tutees included such future flying aces as Stanford Tuck. From the outbreak of World War II in 1939, he commanded a squadron of bombers, himself flying Lancasters. He was shot down on 11 December 1940 at Châteaubriant in occupied France, together with Sergeants E Martin, J McEwan and RP Tebutt. All were taken prisoner and Tindal was eventually imprisoned at Stalag Luft III, where he spent the rest of the War.

Great Escape
His particular responsibility preceding the Great Escape was to forge the documents of the escapers. He 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. This man was shot along with other airmen at the direct orders of Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring, an order that was one of the pieces of evidence most critical in securing Göring's conviction at the Nuremberg trials. Tindal had had his own, successful, escapes - once escaping in German uniform for eight days, before being caught near Hamburg. For his many escape attempts, Tindal was twice Mentioned in Dispatches.

After WWII
Tindal was promoted Group Captain in 1946, with seniority to July 1945. He 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. While in Jerusalem, where he was stationed with his family, Tindal narrowly escaped the King David Hotel bombing, on July 22, 1946.

Tindal retired to County Donegal in Ireland in 1949, where he bought a country house and farm. He was an early pioneer of fruit farming in Ireland, until his orchards were destroyed by Tropical Storm Debbie in 1965.

Family
On 27 June 1936 Tindal married Winifred (1913–1997), daughter of Major Henry Cooper, and they had seven children: Charles (m. Rosemary Dennehy), Penelope (m. Henry Maitland Clark, colonial officer and MP for Antrim North (1959–1970)), Francis (m. Brigid Lauder), Caroline (m. Peter Dawnay), Jacqueline (m. John Hoar, son of Dr Harold Frank Hoar), Anthony (m. Penelope Railton) and Ralph (m. Caroline Villiers-Stuart). He left 25 grandchildren and 38 great grandchildren.

Death
Tindal died at Dunkirk Memorial House, Bishops Lydeard, Somerset, on 28 January 2006. A requiem mass was held at the church of St. Conal and St. Joseph, Bruckless, Co. Donegal, on 6 February 2006.