Alan Lockhart McCall is well-known for having escaped from a PoW camp in WW2. Unfortunately he was caught and sent to Colditz. Alan Lockhart McCall was born in Sussex on 11 August 1919, the second of three sons of Colonel Robert McCall DSO MC who was also an officer in the Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders and a hero of WW1. Alan was educated at Wellington and in 1937 went to RMA Sandhurst. He was a keen sportsman, representing the Academy at cricket, golf and squash. The Cameron Highlanders was the obvious choice of regiment as his father, uncle and brother all served there.
He was with the 1st Battalion in France, as 2nd in command of C Company, with Colonel Wimberley as CO. The battalion missed out on the Dunkirk evacuation and was captured. He spent 3 years as a PoW in various camps in which he was actively involved in tunnelling and other means of escape. At Eichstatt a tunnel was dug that became famous as the longest escape tunnel dug in WW2. Seventy officers escaped and McCall with his partner walked all night and hid in thick cover. But they woke to find themselves surrounded by members of the Hitler Youth. He was escorted to Colditz where he spent the rest of the war.
In 1945, he was appointed Adjutant of the 5th Battalion and stayed in Germany. He was then posted to Scotland as GSO3 Highland District. He went to Staff College in 1950 and as a major served in Korea, Aden and Bahrain. He retired from the army in 1958. In civilian life he was involved in farming and estate management in Inverness, working as factor for Lady Paynter, lady-in-waiting to the Princess Royal, at Suisgill and Lady Wigan at Borrobol in Sutherland. In 1961 he was appointed factor to the Queen Mother (widow of King George VI) working at Castle Mey, the run-down castle in Caithness which she bought in 1952 and subsequently restored. He stayed at Castle Mey until 1974 when he took on the tenancy of Culmaily Farm in Sutherland. He worked as a farmer with his brother and retired in 1986.
Alan McCall was married in 1948 to Hilda Ross from Nessdale, Inverness. They had a son and two daughters. He died on 20 September 2003.
