Published: Thursday, 11th June, 2009 9:00am

Tributes pour in for beheaded ex-pupil

by Adam Hewitt

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TRIBUTES have been paid to a former Maiden Erlegh School pupil beheaded by Al Qaeda in Africa.

Edwin Dyer, (pictured) who was taken hostage in January and executed on May 31, lived in Wilderness Road, Earley, when he was growing up.

The 61-year-old was on a tourist trip on the Niger-Mali border when he was captured by tribesman who reportedly sold him and other hostages to an Algerian Al Qaeda terrorist cell.

Some were released in April following negotiations but Mr Dyer and Swiss tourist Werner Greiner were held. He was executed and reportedly beheaded on Sunday, May 31.

Mr Dyer was born in Germany, where his British soldier father met and married a German wife.

His former teachers remember him as a fluent German speaker, who later gained degrees in German, English and Maths. Former Waingels headteacher Ivan Marks was head of geography at Maiden Erlegh in the late 1960s when Mr Dyer was a pupil there and said: 'He was a nice lad, very quiet and unassuming - bright and very popular. I was just so shocked to see his picture in the news, I immediately recognised him.'

Mr Dyer moved to Austria at 23, where he is reported to have lived and worked for most of the past 40 years, most recently as a manager of a plumbing firm.

Former Maiden Erlegh history teacher and past president of Reading Welsh Society Caerwyn Watts said: 'He was one of the first pupils I taught, back in 1962 it must have been. He was very intelligent and enthusiastic, he did everything with his full heart and soul.'

Former business studies teacher Anne Bridger said: 'I, as well as many of his other former teachers, remember him and feel very sad that he had to suffer such a lonely and violent death.' She said she still remembered him well more than 40 years later, showing what an impact he made.

Mr Watts said that all three of Mr Dyer"s brothers also went to Maiden Erlegh School, including Hans who now teaches at Lambs Lane primary school in Back Lane, Spencers Wood. He could not be contacted yesterday (Wednesday).

Janet Dyer, from Leicester, who is married to their brother Ian, told the Daily Mail that the Government was right not to pay a ransom since it would encourage other terrorists - but other sources say he was killed because the Government ignored demands to release radical cleric Abu Qatada.

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