Join UK historian Geoff Piper for a talk on the extraordinary adventures of Squadron Leader Jim Hayter, DFC and Bar.

Jim, originally from Timaru, joined the RNZAF in 1938 and trained at Wigram.

What followed was an incredible flying career and wartime service – cheating death 19 times. His adventures included shoot-ups with enemy aircraft during the Battle of France and the Battle of Britain, crashes and an escape from the German army.
Jim was awarded the DFC in 1941 for shooting down four aircraft and damaging another four, and a Bar was added in 1945 for his services as a squadron leader. After the war he settled down to life farming and working as a mariner in New Zealand, and he passed away in 2006.
Geoff is from Cranbook in England – the town where Jim once parachuted into after being shot down by the Luftwaffe!

The talk begins at 10am on Saturday 7 February in our Theatre.