Born in London on 6 April 1916,[1] Vickers was educated at Stowe School and Queens' College, Cambridge, where he read History and English.
He joined the Communist Party of Great Britain, influenced by the death of his school contemporary, John Cornford, in the Spanish Civil War in 1936.
He subsequently spent five years in Prisoner of War Camps including a period at Stalag XXI-D in Poznań, Poland.
Towards the end of the war, as prisoners were moved ahead of the retreating German army, he managed to escape in woods near Kassel and a few days later made contact with an American tank crew.
They are survived by their daughter, Salley Vickers, the literary novelist and their son James, Professor of Mathematics at the University of Southampton.