Introduction

My name is James Dean and along with my Dad, Paul, we will soon be taking part in a run from Holzminden in Germany to Losser on the Dutch border, retracing the escape route of my great grandfather 2nd Lt Jock Tullis MC of the Royal Flying Corp.

We begin this run at midnight on the 23rd of July, precisely 100 years after Jock tunnelled out of and escaped the prisoner of war camp he had been held captive in for the previous 2 years.

The tunnel took the officers and men 9 months to construct and its entrance was concealed under a staircase in the orderlies' quarters. 86 officers were on the list to escape, 29 passed through the tunnel and escaped before the 30th man got stuck and the escape attempt had to be stopped. 

As one of the 29 that escaped, my great grandad was one of only 10 that made it back to the UK. 

We will be covering the ~250km over 8 days aided by our support team (my mum!), following my great grandad's route as closely as possible and using his memoirs as a reference. We will update this blog with our progress and reference his memoirs as we cover the same ground he did, 100 years before.

As part of this adventure of a lifetime, we will be raising money for the RAF Benevolent Fund, who have been incredibly supportive.  If you wish to donate in memory of Jock and to help encourage us on our way, we have created a JustGiving page here: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/rge-100yrs
(Thank you for all the generous donations so far)

Please revisit this page as we will be adding more about Jock, their amazing escape and how we get on as we retrace his route to freedom.

James