Frederick Higginson

Wing Commander Frederick "Taffy" Higginson, (17 February 1913 – 12 February 2003 Educated at Gowerton Grammar School, he joined the RAF straight from school as an apprentice in 1929, aged 16. Assigned for training at RAF Halton, he was allocated service number: 44630. In 1932 he was posted as a fitter-airgunner to No 7 Bomber Squadron.

RAF career

Pre-war pilot Accepted for pilot training in 1935, on completion of training he joined the Gloster Gauntlet-equipped No. 19 Squadron RAF the following year, and then quickly moved to C Flight to form No. 66 Squadron RAF. Selected to play rugby for the RAF from 1936, in 1937 he moved to the Gloster Gladiator-equipped No. 56 Squadron RAF, which was then re-equipped with the brand new Hawker Hurricane monoplane fighter.

On 16 August, after sustaining damage from return fire from a Dornier Do 17 that he had critically damaged, he crash-landed his Hurricane Mk I (P3547) near Whitstable. On 18 August 1940 his Hurricane was again damaged in combat off the Essex coast. In the resulting explosion Higginson's control column snapped at the base, his left boot was torn off and his trousers were shredded.

Recapture Impatient at being out of the action, Higginson caught a train to Perpignan, where with an Australian Army Corporal they persuaded a Catalan to guide them to Spain. Stopped by gendarmes and found to have false papers, Higginson struck one of them. Imprisoned for six months, he was retained in reprisal for a further period after a 5 March 1942, RAF raid on the Renault factory at Boulogne-Billancourt. Placed in Fort de la Revere above Monte Carlo on 17 March he decided to assume the name Captain Bennett as he believed the Germans disliked airmen. On 17 September the group were picked up from the beach by a dingy from the Q-ship Tarana, a Polish fishing trawler also called the Seawolf. Transferred to the SOE fast patrol boat HMS Minna,

Postwar career Sent to the RAF Staff College, Bracknell in 1948, on graduation he was appointed personal staff officer to the Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief, RAF Training Command. In 1951 he joined the staff of the Army Staff College, Camberley. Promoted wing commander from 1952, he served on the operational requirements staff, also taking a helicopter course.

Having met Kuwaiti businessman Abdullah Alireza, in 1964 he left Bristol Aircraft to launch Rezayat Services' London office, building a substantial business for the Kuwaiti's European company.

Memorial Higginson was remembered at his old school in Swansea, with the unveiling of a plaque in November 2010.