Identity area
Type of entity
Person
Authorized form of name
Hunter, Colin Havard, 1912-1944
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Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
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Description area
Dates of existence
1912-1944
History
Hunter, Colin Havard, brother of Francis Trevor Hunter (qv); b. 27 Aug. 1912; adm. Apr. 1926 (G); left July 1930; an aeronautical engineer, AFRAeS 1933; RAFVR 1940-4 (acting Sqdn Ldr), killed in action 8 May 1944.
Colin Havard Hunter was born at Briton Ferry, Neath, Wales on the 27th of August 1912 the son of His Honour Judge Trevor Havard Hunter KC and Ethel Ruth (nee Griffiths) Hunter of 6, Hereford Mansions, Hereford Road, Paddington in London. He was christened at Briton Ferry on the 29th of September 1911. He was educated at Westminster School where he was up Grant’s from April 1926 to July 1930.
On leaving school he became an aeronautical engineer and qualified AFRAeS in 1933. He was awarded a Royal Aero Club Certificate (No. 10534) at the Herts and Essex Aero Club on the 7th of June 1932 while flying a DH Moth aircraft.
He was commissioned as a Pilot Officer in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve on the 14th of September 1940 and was promoted to Flying Officer on the 14th of September 1941. He was promoted to Flight Lieutenant on the 14th of September 1942. He trained at No. 1654 Conversion Unit prior to becoming operational.
On the night of the 7th/8th of May 1944, Bomber Command dispatched 58 Lancasters and 9 Mosquitos for an attack on an ammunition dump at Salbris as part of ongoing operations in preparation for the planned invasion of France. It was to be his eighteenth operation and he had completed 133.48 hours of operational flying up to that time.
Colin Hunter and his crew took off from RAF Dunholm Lodge at 9.46pm on the 7th of May 1944 in Lancaster Mk III ND741KM-K for the operation. Shortly after midnight the aircraft was attacked by a Messerschmitt Bf110 night fighter flown by Leutnant Fred Hromadnik of 9/NJG4 and it caught fire. The crew abandoned the aircraft at low level but only Flight Engineer Fred Cooper’s parachute deployed in time, with the remaining six crew members being killed when they hit the ground. The aircraft crashed at 12.30am into the village of Herbilly, a few kilometres to the west of the River Loire and some twenty kilometres to the north east of Blois. It exploded when it hit the village, destroying several buildings and killing thirteen civilians in their homes. Theirs was the fourth of an eventual six victories for Fred Hromadnik.
The crew was: -
Squadron Leader Colin Havard Hunter (Pilot)
Pilot Officer Richard Colton Alexander (Air Gunner)
Flying Officer Alfred Greenwood (Navigator)
Pilot Officer George Robert Miles (Air Gunner)
Pilot Officer Frederick Arthur Salmon (Wireless Operator/Air Gunner)
Flying Officer Gordon Keith Willis RCAF (Air Bomber)
Sergeant Frederick Stanley Cooper (Flight Engineer) (POW No. 13 Dulag Luft)
Theirs was one of seven aircraft which failed to return from the operation.
While Colin Hunter was fighting to control the aircraft to give his crew time to bail out, Fred Cooper escaped from the aircraft out of the top hatch and was the first member of the crew to get out. His parachute opened just in time and he hit the side of the roof of a house before sliding off and landing on a green house where he suffered cuts to his head. He was taken into hiding by locals but when the Germans threatened to begin shooting the villagers he gave himself up and was taken prisoner. He was later taken by the Germans to the crash site where he was able to identify the bodies of George Miles, Colin Hunter and Alfred Greenwood.
He is buried at Orleans Main Cemetery Plot 1, Row A, Collective Grave 16-27.
Places
Legal status
Functions, occupations and activities
Squadron Leader 85249; 44 (Rhodesia) Squadron, Royal Air Force
Mandates/sources of authority
Internal structures/genealogy
General context
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Control area
Authority record identifier
Institution identifier
GB 2014
Rules and/or conventions used
International Standard Archival Authority Record for Corporate Bodies, Persons and Families - ISAAR(CPF) 2nd edition
Status
Final
Level of detail
Full
Dates of creation, revision and deletion
Prepared for import into AtoM by Westminster School Archive staff, 2019-2020. Updated by Bethany Duck, Archives Assistant, September 2022.
Language(s)
Script(s)
Sources
The Record of Old Westminsters: A biographical list of all those who are known to have been educated at Westminster School from Play 1919 to Election 1989, Volume 4, compiled by F.E. Pagan and H.E. Pagan, Padstow, 1992.
Westminster School Second World War Memorial by John C. Hamblin, 2022.