Son of William James Hitchcock who served in World War 1 (31018). Husband of Jo; father of Jenny, Sue, Mike, Anne

Dr Hitchcock was awarded an OBE in 1989 for services to Medicine.

Cenotaph record initially prepared with the serviceman in 1998.

"Served two tours with 6 Squadron, Royal New Zealand Air Force (Catalina), in the Pacific rescuing downed American aircrew returning from raids on Rabaul. Squadron Leader Hitchcock had an interesting and varied RNZAF career. After flying training in New Zealand he was posted for service with 100 Squadron RAF (Vildebeest) in Singapore. After his return to New Zealand in April 1942, he was posted to 5 Squadron Royal New Zealand Air Force (Singapore) in Fiji and from October flew Catalinas for a time with VP-11 and VP-91 USN Patrol Squadrons before joining 6 Squadron RNZAF (Catalina) in May 1943. He served also with the Pacific Ferry during March-June 1944 delivering Catalinas from the US. In July he was posted to the UK to join 490 Squadron RNZAF (Sunderland) in West Africa. However, he was instead posted to 635 Squadron RAF in the Pathfinder Force. In Feb 1993, he commented that - "my second night landing in a Lancaster was returning from a raid - the rain was so heavy and the night so dark that the gloomy English flight engineer said afterwards that he wasn't nervous as he knew that I would land it like a 'boat' - I did." He was on his second tour with 635 Squadron when the war ended. From 1951 to 1960he served as a Medical Officer in the TAF and on the Active Reserve." By Such Deeds, p. 252.

After completing his war service, he achieved entry to medical school and graduated in 1951. He married Jocelyn Thomson during his house surgeon year. He spent several years as a General Practitioner, but wished to explore other areas of medicine. He applied to Greenlane Hospital as a medical registrar, and then studied pathology, achieving Fellowship of the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia in 1968. He “knocked off” a diploma of financial planning from Massey University, and achieved Ocean Yachtmaster qualification. Furthermore, he volunteered at the Auckland War Memorial Museum. New Zealand Medical Journal, 28 May 2010, Vol. 123, No. 1315. AWMM