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Kirkwall RNLI lifeboat crew member at Burray Remembrance Service
John Tulloch, who serves on the Kirkwall RNLI lifeboat and is originally from Burray, was invited to give a reading at the Burray Remembrance Sunday service this year. Mr Tulloch joined the Kirkwall RNLI volunteer lifeboat crew in 2012 and further trained in casualty care and to be a navigator.
Mr Tulloch’s father, James William Sandison Tulloch, was in the Merchant Navy, working on the North Atlantic Convoys, during WWII. These convoys were organised groups of merchant ships, travelling together, escorted by naval warships and air escorts to ensure that supplies continued to arrive in Britain for survival during the Second World War.
On one of these trips the ship that James Tulloch was on was torpedoed, the crew were rescued and taken onboard another ship but this too was torpedoed. James Tulloch was injured while on the rescue ship when it came under fire, an injury that would save his life.
He was taken from the ship and delivered to hospital in New York so that they could deal with his injured shoulder. While he was in the care of medical staff, his fellow crew were placed on a third ship, but this ship was also torpedoed, only this time the ship went down with all hands and all were lost at sea. The communication that reached family back home in Eday, was that all were lost at sea.
James Tulloch latterly worked with Flotta Marine and John Tulloch, his son, remembers going out on the Houton Lass with him when he was skipper. John Tulloch, always wanted to go to sea, so much so that he built a ‘boat’ in the family garden that was the envy of other children in the village. One boy, when asked what he wanted for his birthday, told his parents that he wanted John’s boat.
John Tulloch never went to sea, his father discouraged him, so he built his career around his engineering qualifications from Napier University, his father having passed before he finished college.
Mr John Tulloch said, ‘It was an honour to be asked to take part in the Burray Remembrance Service. This is where I grew up and where my parents spent much of their life together, so it is a place full of memories. I am proud to serve on the Kirkwall RNLI Lifeboat and to represent them and the RNLI in the place of my childhood.’
RNLI Media Contacts
For further information, please contact:
Erica Niven, Volunteer Lifeboat Press Officer for RNLI Kirkwall, [email protected]
Natasha Rushby, RNLI Regional Communications Manager for Scotland, 07826 900639, [email protected]
Martin Macnamara, RNLI Regional Communications Lead for Scotland, 07920 365929, [email protected]
RNLI Press Office, 01202 336789, [email protected]
Key facts about the RNLI
The RNLI is the charity that saves lives at sea. Its volunteers provide a 24-hour search and rescue service around the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland coasts. The RNLI operates 238 lifeboat stations in the UK and Ireland and more than 240 lifeguard units on beaches around the UK and Channel Islands. The RNLI is independent of Coastguard and government and depends on voluntary donations and legacies to maintain its rescue service. Since the RNLI was founded in 1824, its lifeboat crews and lifeguards have saved over 146,700 lives.
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Contacting the RNLI - public enquiries
Members of the public may contact the RNLI on 0300 300 9990 (UK) or 1800 991802 (Ireland) or by email.