Quick Facts
Biography
General Sir James Michael Gow GCB (3 June 1924 – 26 March 2013) was a senior British Army officer who served in the Second World War and reached high office in the 1980s, commanding the British Army of the Rhine.
Military career
Educated at Winchester College, Gow was commissioned as a second lieutenant into the Scots Guards, British Army, during the Second World War. He was one of the first British officers into the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in April 1945, shortly before Victory in Europe Day.
He remained in the army after the war and became Commanding Officer (CO) of the 2nd Battalion, Scots Guards in 1964, later commanding the 4th Guards Brigade in 1967 before becoming a brigadier on the General Staff of HQ British Army of the Rhine in 1971. He was appointed General Officer Commanding (GOC) 4th Division in 1973 and Director of Army Training in 1975.
He then moved on to be General Officer Commanding Scotland and Governor of Edinburgh Castle in 1979 and Commander-in-Chief (C-in-C) of the British Army of the Rhine and the Northern Army Group in 1980. He was appointed Commandant of the Royal College of Defence Studies in 1984 and retired from the army in 1986. He was Aide-de-Camp General to H.M. The Queen from 1981 to 1984. He died on 26 March 2013.
Personal life
In 1946 he married Jane Emily Scott and they had one son and four daughters. He was the maternal grandfather of theatre and opera director Sophie Hunter.