Peter Oldfield

Peter Carlton Oldfield (27 February 1911 – 16 July 2002) was an English first-class cricketer and British Army officer. Oldfield played his first-class cricket predominantly for Oxford University between 1931–1933, earning a reputation as a skilled wicket-keeper. During the Second World War he served in North Africa with the Special Air Service (SAS), during the course of which he was captured and subsequently escaped.

Early life and cricket The son of Carlton Oldfield, a surgeon, Oldfield was born at Headingley in February 1911. He was educated at Repton School under the headmastership of Geoffrey Fisher, before going up to University College, Oxford. He played as Oxford's first-choice wicket-keeper ahead of Vivian Jenkins, making a total of twenty first-class appearances for Oxford. He made additional first-class appearances while at Oxford for The Rest against the MCC touring team to Australia, and for the Gentlemen in the Gentlemen v Players fixture of 1933. Frustrated by a lack of action, Oldfield was transferred to Cairo in 1941, where he used his skills as a surveyor in the Air Reconnaissance Unit (ARU). Toward the end of the North African campaign, Stirling devised a plan to insert more than 200 men behind enemy lines in Libya. Moving out in November 1942, Oldfield was assigned to patrol the gap between A and B Squadrons. After a number of successful raids, the SAS depot at Bir Faschia was captured by the Germans, leaving the patrols short on supplies. Evading capture, Oldfield mined the coastal road, attacked convoys and destroyed more than twenty planes at the airfield at Tuorga. The following night he returned to the airfield to destroy the remaining two fighters, but the Germans had intercepted a message from the Eighth Army HQ and were lying in wait for Oldfield. Oldfield was spotted by searchlights at the airfield and chased by several armoured cars, though he managed to evade them throughout the night, despite his own jeep catching fire and stalling at one point. Having evaded capture, he continued to harass the Germans for another four weeks until his was finally captured, having been shot in the neck and paralysed down his left side. He was made an OBE in October 1945.

Later life After the war, Oldfield resumed his career with Knight Frank & Rutley. He was among the first to encourage the new trend of buying land for investment and in 1966 he became a senior partner at Knight Frank & Rutley. Prior to his retirement in 1972, he led efforts to expand the business overseas. He retired to Kingsclere in Hampshire, where he owned several race horses. He died at Highclere in July 2002, with his wife having predeceased him by two years.