Bernard Gordon Lennox was a highly principled officer in the Grenadier Guards, a regiment that prides itself on its professionalism, but some of his brother officers thought he carried that aspiration a touch too far and in mid-career he acquired a rather aggressive-sounding nickname — “Bernie the Bolt!” — that led to some misconceptions about his character.
It came about during a game of charades played by a group of officers at Magilligan Camp near Londonderry, where the 2nd Battalion Grenadier Guards were stationed in 1969 during the early days of the Troubles. Gordon Lennox was required to act the catchphrase from the then popular television game The Golden Shot, in which contestants fired a crossbow bolt while blindfolded. The energy of Gordon Lennox’s performance encouraged his audience to prolong the game, pretending to be unable to guess the phrase, which then became his nickname.
As his career progressed he became well known for speaking his mind, with scant regard for the consequences or likely reaction of the questioner. While on Royal Guard duty in London as a subaltern officer, Gordon Lennox was asked by the prime minister of the day, Harold Macmillan — himself a former grenadier — what he thought of the present government. Gordon Lennox replied that it appeared popular, which it apparently was, but suggested that he was mistaken in appointing the Duke of Devonshire — a member of Macmillan’s family by marriage — to a ministerial position. Macmillan replied that to be sure that individuals could be trusted it was as well to choose people one had known for most of their lives. In recounting this story, Gordon Lennox would take satisfaction in pointing out that a few weeks later John Profumo, the secretary of state for war whom Macmillan had also known for many years, resigned for lying to him and the House of Commons about his relationship with the model Christine Keeler.
Bernard Charles Gordon Lennox was the elder son of Lieutenant- General Sir George (“Geordie”) Gordon Lennox, a former grenadier known as a strict disciplinarian, and through the Dukes of Richmond and Gordon, a direct descendant of Charles II. Throughout his life he was an ideas man, forcefully proposing reform wherever he saw it required. Family lore maintains that he was in command of the nursery at the age of three. He was educated at Eton, where he was a house captain, and Sandhurst, where he won the Sword of Honour. Commissioned into the Grenadiers in 1953, he served in Germany, Egypt and with UN forces in Cyprus, where he made a name for himself by pursuing an alleged murderer direct from the polo field, wearing his blue UN cravat and wielding his polo mallet.
He married Sally-Rose Warner in 1958 and they had three sons: Edward, who followed him into the Grenadiers after also winning the Sword of Honour and is now a leadership consultant; Angus, another grenadier who became an investment banker and runs the family’s Fochabers estate; and Charlie, who founded a security company in London. His wife and sons survive him.
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Wherever he went, some form of entertainment was usually quick to follow. The situation in Hong Kong, where he was posted as operations officer in 1967, was far from amusing as many inhabitants rioted in the streets after being urged to do so by supporters of Mao Zedong’s cultural revolution. Gordon Lenox was appointed MBE for his success in deploying the military garrison in aid of the Hong Kong police and manning the long frontier between the New Territories and China.
He took over command of 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards in 1974 and the next couple of years were taken up by a series of emergency tours of duty in Northern Ireland. His ideas on how better to deal with the terrorist threat without further alienating the civilian population bombarded brigade headquarters. On calling to make his farewell, the brigadier remarked: “It has been a privilege to be under your command these past few months!” He was mentioned in dispatches in 1975.
Someone must have had his tongue in his cheek when on promotion to colonel Gordon Lennox was sent to the RAF Staff College at Bracknell as the army’s representative on the directing staff. Having no experience of the Royal Air Force he found the light-hearted camaraderie of the students rather shocking and quite foreign to his serious approach to service matters.
To his surprise, and not a few of his contemporaries, he was promoted to major-general to become commanding officer of the British Sector of Berlin in 1980. Officers of the Brigade of Guards had previously served in this post with marked success, as it involved the prestigious annual Queen’s Birthday parade, and rather more significantly the need for a delicate touch in dealing with American and French allies, and the local civil administration.
A minor diplomatic tremor occurred in his stewardship when he visited Rudolf Hess, a former Nazi leader, who was held in Spandau prison. Noticing the cell had soft furnishings, he ordered their removal and the cell reduced to sparse condition. Its state had been the subject of a diplomatic agreement between the wartime allies, so this gave rise to concern. Once the issue was explained Gordon Lennox accepted it with his usual insouciance and the cell was returned to its former condition.
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On relinquishing the Berlin post in 1985, he became the senior army member of staff at the Royal College of Defence Studies in London. After his retirement in 1988, he served in the honorary appointment of Regimental Lieutenant-Colonel Grenadier Guards from 1989 to 1995. He was also chairman of the Guards Polo Club.
Despite his eccentric reputation, Gordon Lennox was respected for his Christian principles. He rewarded hard work, but had no time for wasters. He would always be the first to help; seeing that one of his daughters-in-law had caught a salmon on the River Spey, he whipped off his shoes and socks — even though she was in waders — to brave the icy stream and land the fish.
Major-General Bernard Gordon Lennox, CB, MBE, soldier, was born on September 19, 1932. He died from the effects of dementia on December 27, 2017, aged 85