Digby Tatham-Warter

Tatham-Warter married in 1949 Jane Boyd, daughter of Capt. Roderick Bulteel Boyd (farmer in Nanyuki, Kenya) and granddaughter of Arthur George Egerton, 5th Earl of Wilton, and they had three daughters and several grandchildren. Their daughter Belinda Rose Tatham-Warter (b. 1954) married in Nanyuki German aristocrat Duke Friedrich von Oldenburg, great-grandson of Frederick Augustus II, last ruling Grand Duke of Oldenburg. Digby died in Nanyuki on 21 March 1993.

Tatham-Warter served as the inspiration for the character of Major Harry Carlyle, who likewise carried an umbrella into battle, in the 1977 film A Bridge Too Far. The role was played by Christopher Good. Although Tatham-Warter survived the Second World War, Carlyle is depicted as being a casualty of the Battle of Arnhem.

After the war ended, Digby served in British-controlled Mandatory Palestine before being appointed to the 5th King's African Rifles in British Kenya in 1946, where he also bought two estates in Eburru and Nanyuki. During the Mau Mau Uprising, Digby raised a volunteer mounted police force at his own expense and led them into battle against the Mau Mau. After that, he retired to run his estates. He also created the concept of the modern safari where animals would be photographed rather than hunted. He supported racial reconciliation and believed Africans had the right to self-government, this belief made him somewhat of an outlier within Kenya's European community. Tatham-Warter was "outspokenly sympathetic" to African nationalism and in particular to Kikuyu concerns about land ownership. During Kenyan independence, it is reported that the British Defence staff told the British High Commissioner to "look after Tatham-Warter".

When the Second World War broke out, Digby was not initially sent to fight in Europe. His sister Kit served in the Western Desert Campaign and was awarded the French Croix de guerre while serving with the Hadfield-Spears Unit. Upon hearing of his brother John's death at the Second Battle of El Alamein in late 1942 with the 2nd Dragoon Guards, The Queen's Bays, Digby volunteered for the airborne forces and transferred to the Parachute Regiment. He was appointed as the company commander of A Company of the 2nd Parachute Battalion, part of the 1st Parachute Brigade of the 1st Airborne Division. He was stationed in Grantham, Lincolnshire during training. His tiger hunting exploits were well known, and his reputation was enhanced as he was able to obtain the use of an American Dakota aeroplane in which he flew all the company officers in the camp to London for a party at the Ritz.

Digby passed out of Sandhurst on 21 January 1937 and was commissioned as a second lieutenant into the Unattached List for the Indian Army with a view to joining the Indian Army due to his family connections. He was attached to the 2nd Battalion, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry in India from 13 March 1937, and subsequently transferred to that regiment 27 April 1938 (never joining the Indian Army) so that he would be able to continue his hobbies of tiger hunting and pig sticking.

Digby was born in Atcham, Shropshire, England. He was the second son of Henry de Grey Tatham-Warter, a landowner with several estates in the southwest of England. Digby's father fought in the First World War with the Artists Rifles; he was gassed in the trenches and died when Digby was 11. Digby was educated at Wellington College, Berkshire. In 1935 he was accepted into the Royal Military College, Sandhurst.

Major Allison Digby Tatham-Warter DSO (21 May 1917 – 21 March 1993), also known as Digby Tatham-Warter or just Digby, was a British Army officer who fought in the Second World War and was famed for wearing a bowler hat and carrying an umbrella into battle.