Ian K. T. Sayer (born 30 October 1945) is a British entrepreneur, World War II historian, author and investigative journalist. His Sayer Transport Group (established in 1967 and sold in 1979) became part of the British and European overnight door to door express parcels delivery industry.
He is a World War II historian and studies Nazi Germany documentation. He is co-author of Nazi Gold, The Story of the World’s Greatest Robbery and claims to remain the only private individual to have been responsible for the location and restitution of looted Nazi gold. That claim remains unchallenged. As a Nazi hunter, he has also tracked down a number of Nazis for war criminal investigations, including SS General Wilhelm Mohnke whose wartime activities were subsequently investigated by the British, Canadian, American and German governments.
He currently acts as curator to the "Ian Sayer Archive", a collection of contemporary World War II documentation, which assists in providing information to institutions, other historians, authors and researchers of the period.
Education and early career
Ian Sayer was born in Norwich, Norfolk, two months after the end of World War II. His father, Leslie, had found it difficult to find work (as a commercial artist) in the 1930s and moved to West London to secure employment shortly before the war. Ian and his two older brothers were brought up in Feltham, Middlesex. He was educated at Sunbury Grammar School where he obtained General Certificates of Education in English Economic History and English.
During the 1950s he became an avid "spotter" recording the registration marks of everything from steam locomotives, warships, buses and finally aeroplanes. It was this last interest which led to the 15-year-old Sayer's first commercial venture – the purchase and sale of old aircraft magazines and books.
Entering the insurance industry in the City of London as a junior clerk in 1962 he changed jobs several times before deciding to work closer to home. In 1965 he became a junior export clerk in an air freight company at London's Heathrow Airport.
Transport career
In 1966 he and a partner established a small transport company delivering airfreight to and from Heathrow Airport. The partnership ended in 1967 and the 21-year-old Sayer decided to "go it alone" with one van.
The company expanded and then, in December 1969, as a result of a strike at Heathrow began the first daily, door to door, overnight parcels delivery service between London and Northern Ireland. This operation, initially competing against air freight services, was to revolutionise road transport in Britain and Europe. In the ensuing decade the company's activities expanded to encompass overnight services between the whole of mainland Britain and the major offshore islands.
By 1979 the company was one of the most successful transport companies in the United Kingdom. The overnight door to door concept had already been firmly established in the United States (by FedEx) and Australia (by transport conglomerates TNT and Ipec.
Sayer had already rejected a number of overtures from Sir Peter Abeles' TNT Group who wished to acquire his company to spearhead their proposed entry into the British and European markets but Gordon Barton's Ipec Group were also interested in penetrating this market and, following an approach from deputy chairman Hugh O’Neill (now 3rd Baron Rathcavan) and his assistant Mark Thatcher (later seconded as Sayer's personal assistant), in the spring of 1979, he agreed to act as a consultant. This subsequently led to Ipec's simultaneous acquisition of the Sayer Transport Group and Gelders-Spetra (a Dutch-based European haulage company) The combined group was renamed Ipec Europe B V which became the first company to establish an overnight door to door intra-European delivery service.
Although Sayer remained on the board of Ipec's European holding company until its takeover by TNT in 1983 he now had more time to pursue his other interests.
Author
During the 1950s Sayer had developed a considerable interest in World War II. He had been brought up in an era where there had been a proliferation of films and books concerning the conflict. In addition his awareness of military history had been heightened by the fact that his great grandmother had been awarded a special scroll and £3 (a considerable amount of money in those days) by Queen Victoria to expressly commemorate the fact that his grandmother's six brothers were, in 1900, simultaneously serving under the colours in places as far afield as India and South Africa.