biography
| name: |
Hitchcock, Tommy
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popular name of Thomas Hitchcock, Jr
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| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1900–44)
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| biography:
| Polo player and aviator, born in Aiken, South Carolina, USA. Son of a 10-goal polo player, the highest ranking, he became an outstanding polo player by age 16. In World War 1 he volunteered to fly in the Lafayette Escadrille and was shot down behind German lines in March 1918. He escaped and made his way back to his squadron, which became a unit of the US Air Service by the end of the war. After graduating from Harvard, he entered banking but concentrated his energies on polo. During 1922–40 he was rated as a 10-goal player 18 times and he secured his reputation as the greatest American polo player, arguably the greatest in the world. In 1942 he was commissioned as lieutenant-colonel in the Army Air Corps, and assigned command of a fighter group. He died while testing a P-51 in England. |
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