Jump to content

Tim Vigors

Add links
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Tom Vigors
Born(1921-03-22)22 March 1921
Hatfield, Hertfordshire
Died14 November 2003(2003-11-14)(aged 82)
Cambridge,Cambridgeshire
AllegianceUnited Kingdom
Service/branchRoyal Air Force
Years of service1939–1946
RankWing Commander
Service number33554
UnitNo. 222 Squadron RAF
No. 243 Squadron RAF
CommandsNo. 453 Squadron RAAF
Battles/warsSecond World War
AwardsDistinguished Flying Cross
Other workThoroughbred racehorse breeding

Wing CommanderTimothy Ashmead Vigors,DFC(22 March 1921 – 14 November 2003) was aRoyal Air Forcefighter pilot andflying aceduring theSecond World War,in which he fought in theBattle of Britainand in the Far East. In civilian life, Vigors began the development of theCoolmore Studthat transformed the breeding ofthoroughbred racehorses.

Vigors's account of his wartime experiences was published posthumously in 2006 asLife's Too Short to Cry: The Inspirational Memoir of an Ace Battle of Britain Fighter Pilot.

Early life and education

[edit]

Vigors was born atHatfield, Hertfordshire,on 22 March 1921.[1]Although Vigors's father worked as astockbroker,the family were landowners inCounty Carlowin Ireland and owned Tullamaine Castle stud inCounty Tipperary.[2]

He grew up nearMelton Mowbrayin Leicestershire and hunted with the Mendip from an early age.[1]He was educated atEton College.[3]

Military career

[edit]

Battle of Britain

[edit]

In January 1939 Vigors enrolled as a cadet atRAF Cranwell.He joinedNo. 222 Squadron RAFflyingSpitfiresatRAF Duxfordin February 1940. He saw action overDunkirkin May, shooting down his firstBf 109on 30 May, at which he felt the same satisfaction, his obituary inThe Daily Telegraphrecorded him saying, as if he had "pulled down a high-flying pigeon flashing across the evening sky with the wind up his tail". On 1 June he shot down his firstHeinkel He 111.[1]He attended the Fourth of June[clarification needed]atEtonhaving fought over Dunkirk that morning.[4]

Through the summer of 1940, 222 Squadron flew fromRAF Hornchurchin Essex. The squadron suffered heavy casualties and Vigors was himself twice forced to crash land. He once responded to a call for volunteers to intercept enemy bombers when still wearing his scarlet pyjamas under a green silk dressing gown, shooting down a Heinkel,[3]and during night-time scrambles was in charge of attachingDouglas Bader's tin left leg.[4]By the end of September he had destroyed at least six enemy aircraft, with a further six probable successes.[3]In October 1940 he was awarded theDistinguished Flying Cross.[1]

During theBattle of Britain,Vigors flew with theIrish tricolourpainted on his Spitfire's fuselage.[5]

Sinking of HMSPrince of Walesand HMSRepulse

[edit]
Main article:Sinking of Prince of Wales and Repulse

Vigors was posted toSingaporein December 1940, joiningNo. 243 Squadron RAFas aflight commander,flyingBrewster F2A Buffalofighters.[3]In December 1941, he took temporary command ofNo. 453 Squadron RAAF(also equipped with Buffalos).[1]

453 Squadron, based atRAF Sembawang,was designated "fleet defence squadron" forForce Z– a Royal Navy task force, including a battleship, HMSPrince of Walesand a battlecruiser, HMSRepulse– commanded by Admiral SirTom Phillips.[6]After the Imperial Japanese Army invadedBritish Malaya,Force Z moved north from Singapore to attack a Japanese convoy bound forSingora.453 Squadron andPrince of Waleshad previously agreed on a system of radio procedures, to facilitate air cover for Force Z. However, a plan proposed by Vigors to keep six aircraft above the ships in daylight hours was rejected.[7]Moreover, Phillips insisted on maintaining radio silence after leaving port and did not keep 453 Squadron informed of his ships' position.[1]

After failing to locate the Japanese convoy, Philips altered course, in response to reports of Japanese landings atKuantan.At that point, Force Z came under attack from land-based Japanesebombersandtorpedo bombers.No request for air cover was transmitted by the commander ofRepulse,until an hour after the Japanese attack began. Pilots from 453 Squadron arrived over the battle area just asPrince ofsank;Repulsehad sunk 50 minutes earlier.[8][9]Vigors later commented, "I reckon this must have been the last battle in which the Navy reckoned they could get along without the RAF. A pretty damned costly way of learning."[7]

In December 1941, 453 Squadron was posted to northernMalaya.Vigors had just landed atRAF Butterworthwhen the airfield came under attack from Japanese aircraft. Vigors ordered the squadron to scramble and retaliate. As they attacked a large formation of bombers, Vigors was shot through the left thigh and his aircraft was hit in the fuel tank. He suffered burns while baling out and landed in a mountainous area nearPenang.Two Malay civilians found the injured Vigors and carried him to safety.[1][3]

India and return to UK

[edit]

Vigors was evacuated to India, where he held a number of training appointments and then assumed command ofRAF Yelahanka,with responsibility for convertingHurricanepilots to theThunderboltground-attack fighter.[1]

In 1945 he returned to England. He retired from the RAF as a wing commander in November 1946.[1]His final tally of combat victories was 12.[3]

Memoir

[edit]

Vigors's account of his experiences in the war was published posthumously in 2006, 56 years after it was written, asLife's Too Short to Cry: The Inspirational Memoir of an Ace Battle of Britain Fighter Pilot.[4][10]

Business career

[edit]

After retiring from the RAF, Vigors first set up a photographic agency in Ireland. He then joined the bloodstock auctioneers Goffs, leaving in 1951 to start his own bloodstock agency.[2][11]Vigors was one of the first bloodstock agents to internationalise the racehorse breeding industry. In 1950 he was instrumental in the Irish horseNasrullah,standing at stud in America atClaiborne FarminParis, Kentucky.[2]

In the 1950s he also set up his own aviation company, based atKidlington,nearOxford.The company specialised in providing private and executive planes and held the agency forPiper aircraft.The firm was taken over by CSE Aviation and Vigors returned to work in the bloodstock business.[1][11]

Bloodstock

[edit]

Tim Vigors Bloodstock was one of the leading bloodstock operations of the 1960s. In 1964 Vigors paid 37,000 guineas for Chandelier, breaking a 10-year record at Newmarket's December sales.[2][11]Two years later, again at Newmarket, he paid a record 31,000 guineas on behalf of an international partnership for a yearling colt by Charlottesville. He also bought the filliesGlad RagsandFleet,who won the1,000 Guineasin 1966 and 1967 respectively. He was friends withArthur B. Hancock, Jr.,ofClaiborne Farm,andOgden Phipps.[2][11]

When Vigors sold the firm it became The British Bloodstock Agency (Ireland).[2]

Coolmore Stud

[edit]

In 1945 Vigors's father had bought the 400-acreCoolmore farmin County Tipperary, where he trained racehorses. Vigors inherited Coolmore in 1968 and began the development of the farm into one of principal stud operations in thoroughbred horse breeding.[3]In 1973 Vigors sold a 50 per cent share in Coolmore to the legendary Irish trainerVincent O'Brien,whoseBallydoylestables were nearby. The youngJohn Magnierwas brought in to run the farm.[12]

In 1973 Vigors paid more than £1 million for the stallionRheingold,winner of thePrix de l'Arc de Triomphe.[2][12]The Coolmore Stud also stood the American-bred milers, Thatch and Home Guard, both trained by O'Brien, while Magnier brought with him the sprinters Green God and Deep Diver.[12][13]

In January 1975, the Vigors and O'Brien partnership announced the amalgamation of the Coolmore Stud with the money ofRobert Sangsterand Magnier's Castle Hyde and Grange studs, creating Coolmore, Castle Hyde and Associated Studs.[12]Coolmore became central to the transformation of thoroughbred horseracing, as Sangster, O'Brien and Magnier set out to capture the leading bloodstock lines, particularly of the stallionNorthern Dancer,at increasingly dramatic auctions at theKeeneland Salesin Kentucky. Initially many of their most famous acquisitions, includingThe MinstrelandAlleged,trained to success on the track by O'Brien, were sold to American syndicates, but Coolmore soon began to increase the quality and size of its breeding operation. In 1982 theirBe My Guestwas named champion sire. Later horses, includingSadler's WellsandDanehill,have made Coolmore perhaps the most successful, and financially remunerative, stud operation in the world.[13][14]

After Coolmore

[edit]

Vigors sold his share in the Coolmore operation and moved to Spain.[3][14][15]He continued to work as a bloodstock agent and in 1983 returned toNewmarket, Suffolk,handling the syndication of the successful sire Indian Ridge and helping to secureHigh Chaparral's dam, Kasora, at auction for Sean Coughlan.[2][3]

In 1990, Vigors became racing adviser to Cartier, helping to initiate the annualCartier Racing Awards.[2][11]

Personal life

[edit]

Tim Vigors was married four times. In 1942, in the North West Frontier Province of India, he married Jan, with whom he had three daughters. They divorced in 1968 and that year Vigors married Atalanta Fairey, with whom he had a son. Atalanta Fairey was the widow of the aircraft pioneerCharles Richard Fairey.In 1972 Vigors married Heidi Bohlen, that marriage resulting in two daughters, and in 1982 he married Diana Bryan inLas Vegas.[1]

References

[edit]
  1. ^abcdefghijkObituary: Tim Vigors,The Daily Telegraph,19 November 2003. Retrieved 2012-10-29.
  2. ^abcdefghiLees, John. "Death of Tim Vigors, visionary bloodstock agent, at 82",The Racing Post,19 November 2003.Link to the article on The Free Library.Retrieved 2012-10-29.
  3. ^abcdefghi"Obituary: Timothy Vigors",The Times,27 November 2003.Link to the article on Infotrac National Newspapers Database (requires login).Retrieved 2012-10-30.
  4. ^abcArmytage, Marcus. "Story Time Diary",The Daily Telegraph,19 December 2006.Link to the article on InfoTrac National Newspapers Database (requires login).Retrieved 2012-10-29.
  5. ^Bourne, Merfyn. The Second World War in the Air: The Story of Air Combat in Every Theatre of World War Two. United Kingdom: Troubador Publishing Limited, 2013. pg 135
  6. ^Stephen, Martin.Sea Battles in Close-up: World War 2,Shepperton, Surrey: Ian Allan (1988), Volume One, p. 108.
  7. ^abShores, Christopher & Cull, Brian with Izawa, Yasuho, ‘’Bloody Shambles’’, London: Grub Street (1992),ISBN0-948817-50-X,Volume One, p.125.
  8. ^Stephen, Martin.Sea Battles in Close-up: World War 2,Shepperton, Surrey: Ian Allan (1988), Volume One, p. 114.
  9. ^Matthews, Alan."The sinking of HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse",Force Z Survivors Association, 2006. Retrieved 2012-10-29.
  10. ^Mudditt, Jessica. "Steve Darlow on Pilots of the Second World War",The Browser.Retrieved 2012-10-29.
  11. ^abcdeGriffiths, Richard. "Obituary: Tim Vigors; Bloodstock agent with vision",The Independent,21 November 2003.Link to the article on Infotrac National Newspapers Database (requires login).Retrieved 2012-10-30.
  12. ^abcdRobinson, Patrick and Robinson, Nick.Horsetrader: Robert Sangster and the Rise and Fall of the Sport of Kings,London: Harper Collins (1993), pp.57–8.
  13. ^abMorris, Tony. "The Rise and Rise of Coolmore: How the foundations were laid for a breeding empire",The Racing Post,29 August 2001.Link to the article on The Free Library.Retrieved 2012-10-30.
  14. ^ab"Coolmore Part one: the early years"Archived10 January 2012 at theWayback Machine,the-racehorse,20 March 2006. Retrieved 2012-10-30.
  15. ^Reid, Jamie.Emperors Of The Turf,London: Macmillan (1989), p.157.

Further reading

[edit]

Vigors, Tim.Life's Too Short to Cry: The Inspirational Memoir of an Ace Battle of Britain Fighter Pilot.London: Grub Street Publishers (2006).ISBN1-904943-61-6

[edit]
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tim_Vigors&oldid=1220751422"