Robin Hooper
Robin Hooper
Sir Robin William John Hooper (26 July 1914 – 14 June 1989) was an English Royal Air Force pilot and diplomat. He served in the Royal Air Force during World War II and later became the British Ambassador to Greece. Hooper was educated at Queen's College, Oxford, where he became a member of the Oxford University Air Squadron. On the night of 16/17 November 1943, Flight Lieutenant Hooper, took off in Westland Lysander ‘MA-D’ from RAF Tangmere, with Special Operations Executive (SOE) agents in the rear cockpit, for a field in France. The outward flight was uneventful, but upon landing in a field he soon realised that all was not well; the ground was extremely soft requiring a great deal of throttle to keep the aircraft moving. In making the turn to return to meet the reception committee, the Lysander became stuck. The aircraft was immovable and even with maximum throttle the aircraft became bogged down in the mud. After attempts to manually push the Lysander out failed, it was decided to get some bullocks from the nearest farm. Two duly arrived with the farmer and his family, only too keen to help – trenches were dug in front of the wheels to form a ramp and all was ready! The bullocks were hitched to the aircraft and started to pull but nothing happened. Two more bullocks were fetched but again the Lysander failed to move. All this took about two hours and Robin finally realised that there was no hope of digging the aircraft out and set about setting it on fire. “D” for “Dog” burnt well in the misty field and soon the agents and Robin were on their way back to a resistance safe house. Robin was safely hidden from the Germans until picked up by fellow pick-up pilot Lewis (Bob) Hodges a month later on the night of 16/17 December.He was knighted in the 1968 Birthday Honours. He was appointed British ambassador to Tunisia in 1966, and served as British ambassador to the Greek government from 1971–74.