Bertram James Squadron Leader Bertram Arthur " Jimmy " James , MC , RAF ( 17 April 1915 – 18 January 2008 ) was a British survivor of The Great Escape . Early life . James was born in India , the son of a tea - planter , and was educated at The King ' s School , Canterbury . He worked in British Columbia from 1934 until volunteering for pilot training with the RAF in 1939 after seeing a recruiting poster in Vancouver . Military career . James was initially commissioned as an acting pilot officer , and was promoted to pilot officer ( on probation ) on 9 December 1939 . That rank was confirmed on 28 February 1941 ( back - dated to 1 May 1940 ) when he was also promoted to war substantive flying officer with effect from 9 December 1940 . James was posted to No . 9 Squadron RAF at RAF Honington in April 1940 after completing his flying training . He was shot down over Holland on 5 June 1940 while second pilot of a Wellington bomber and taken prisoner . Over the next five years , he made 13 efforts to escape from various prisons and camps , including Stalag Luft III , the site in January 1944 of the so - called Great Escape . James took part in this , disguised as a worker at a wood mill , but was among the 73 of the 76 escapers who were eventually recaptured . Fifty were then executed , James being one of a handful sent instead to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp . Along with more than 130 other prominent inmates he was transferred to Tyrol in April 1945 and finally liberated by American troops in May 1945 . At the end of the war he was awarded the Military Cross ( MC ) and Mentioned in Despatches for his repeated escape attempts . The citation for his MC was published in a supplement to the " London Gazette " of 14 May 1946 ( dated 17 May 1946 ) and read : After the war , James was initially transferred to the reserve , but retained on active service , but was later granted a regular commission in the RAF ( though in a non - flying role ) . On 9 December 1952 he transferred to the RAF Regiment , and retired as a squadron leader on 11 June 1958 . Later life . He was general - secretary of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office sponsored Great Britain - USSR Association , until joining the Diplomatic Service in 1964 . He subsequently held posts in Africa , Western and Eastern Europe and London . After retiring in 1975 , he visited Sachsenhausen with Jack Churchill and other survivors of the camp . He also toured the country talking about his wartime experiences , and was President of " Project 104 " , a charitable venture to create a replica of hut 104 at Stalag Luft III , from where the escape tunnel started . He served as the British representative on the International Sachsenhausen Committee until shortly before his death at the age of 92 at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital on 18 January 2008 . His funeral was held at St Peter ' s Catholic Church , Ludlow on 31 January 2008 . A party of RAF Regiment gunners from RAF Honington served as pallbearers , other personnel from the Defence College of Aeronautical Engineering at Cosford were also present , as was Air Commodore Bob McAlpine , a former CO of No . 9 Squadron . Four Tornado GR9s of 9 Squadron performed a flypast in the missing man formation .