Airey Neave
1916–1979
- Nationality
- United Kingdom
- Occupation
- politician
Incarceration history
- Oflag IV-CDates unknown
Biography
Lieutenant Colonel Airey Middleton Sheffield Neave (; 23 January 1916 – 30 March 1979) was a British soldier, lawyer and Member of Parliament (MP) from 1953 until his assassination in 1979. During the Second World War, Neave was the first British prisoner-of-war to succeed in escaping from Oflag IV-C at Colditz Castle. On his return to England he worked with MI9 (Room 900) assisting escape and evasion lines in occupied Europe to help downed airmen evade German capture and return to Britain. The escape lines helped about 7,000 British and American airmen and soldiers escape occupied Europe. After the war he served with the International Military Tribunal at the Nuremberg trials. He later became Conservative MP for Abingdon. Neave was assassinated in a car bomb attack at the House of Commons; the Irish National Liberation Army claimed responsibility.