David James (British MP)

David Pelham Guthrie-James (25 December 1919 – 15 December 1986) was a British Conservative Party politician, author and adventurer.

James was born in 1919, the oldest son of

He attempted to escape in December 1943, slipping out of the shower block on a foggy morning, then crossed Germany wearing his full British naval uniform, but with forged papers identifying him as "I. Bagerov" of the Bulgarian Navy. This name was chosen as a joke, so that when asked who he was he would reply “Bugger off”. James made it as far as the port of Lübeck and had made contact with the crew of a Swedish ship willing to smuggle him out of the country before he was arrested, and returned to the camp.^[3] His second escape in late 1944 used the same method, relying on the corrupt shower-block guards not to report their own short head-count. James again headed for the Baltic coast, posing as a merchant seaman, and this time made it to Sweden.^[4] His successful escape earned him an

A self-penned account of his 11 months in (and out of) the camp was published in the UK as A Prisoner's Progress in Blackwood's Magazine (1946–7), then in book form by Blackwoods in 1947, with a second edition in 1954^[6] and in the U.S. under the title Escaper's Progress.^[7] A review at the time described the work as "one of the better escape books". In 1978, when the book was re-published in the UK in paperback as Escaper's Progress (Corgi), his original account of the escape, as prepared for Naval Intelligence Division was included as an appendix, having become de-classified. This has again been republished by Pen & Sword Ltd.

James was then chosen to act as Polar Adviser to director

In 1957 James wrote a book entitled Outward Bound,[11] with a foreword by the Duke of Edinburgh, about the Outward Bound organisation, and in 1960 co-edited, with The Field editor Wilson Stephens, In Praise of Fox Hunting, a series of essays by contributors such as Dick Francis, Jimmy Edwards and BBC show jumping commentator Dorian Williams.

In 1962, weeks before the birth of his youngest son, he featured on This Is Your Life, having been ambushed at Victoria Station by Eamonn Andrews and his red book, getting off the train from his home town of Haywards Heath.

Although born into a Church of England family, he was a director of Catholic publishing house Burns & Oates, having been received into the church whilst a POW.^{[citation needed]}

He was

On 20 May 1950, James married Jaquetta Mary Theresa (née Digby) (28 October 1928 – 22 February 2019), youngest daughter of Edward Digby, 11th Baron Digby, and sister of Pamela Harriman and Edward Digby, 12th Baron Digby. They had six children, four sons and two daughters, born between 1951 and 1962. In 1979 he changed his name to David Guthrie-James to mark the connection between Clan Guthrie and his family home Torosay Castle on the Isle of Mull.

Interested in the existence of the Loch Ness Monster, he co-founded the Loch Ness Phenomena Investigation Bureau with naturalist Sir Peter Scott in 1962.^[12]

His friend John Robson wrote his biography which was published under the title One Man in His Time (Spellmount Ltd. 1998).^[13]

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