Histories

On Remembrance Sunday, in his bowler hat, arms linked with a blind serviceman, he would lead his charity’s contingent past the Cenotaph

Captain Michael Gordon Lennox, who has died aged 85, effectively led a national charity for blind ex-servicemen after a successful naval career during the Cold War.

In the late 1990s Gordon Lennox relieved Admiral Sir Henry Leach as chairman of St Dunstan’s, a charity set up during the First World War. Under Gordon Lennox’s leadership, a new, vigorous chief executive was chosen, and the charity expanded its work from a single training, convalescent, care and holiday centre near Brighton to other centres in Llandudno and Sheffield.

Soldiers blinded in the Iraq and Afghanistan campaigns were admitted to the charity and membership was also expanded to include service people who had lost their sight through natural causes. Gordon Lennox encouraged the charity’s staff to achieve accreditation with Investors in People, and in 2012, on retiring from the chairmanship, he changed the charity’s name to Blind Veterans UK, to help ensure that the organisation and its work would be better recognised and understood.

By that time Gordon Lennox had become a familiar face on television, seen every year, arms linked with a blind serviceman, as he led the St Dunstan’s contingent past the Cenotaph on the Remembrance Sunday parade.

He was awarded the OBE for his services to the charity.

Michael Charles Gordon Lennox was born in Knightsbridge, in London, to Rear-Admiral Sir Alexander Gordon Lennox, KCVO, DSO, latterly Serjeant at Arms of the House of Commons and Barbara Steele, daughter of Lieutenant General Julian Steele of the Coldstream Guards. Young Gordon Lennox was educated at Wellesley House, Broadstairs, and then Eton, before joining Dartmouth in 1957.

His first ship was the frigate Salisbury on the Far East station, before he was appointed in 1960 to the Royal Yacht Britannia, which he described as a “hotbed of excellence”. He was on board for the royal visits to Tunis, Northern Ireland and Ghana, and for Cowes Week. His first command was the inshore minesweeper Squirrel (1962-64) on fishery protection duties, which included a three-day visit to Paris.

During the Indonesian Confrontation, he was aide-de-camp to the Commander-in-Chief, Far East, based in Singapore, before returning to sea in the destroyer Cavalier. In 1967-68 he specialised in anti-submarine warfare, then served at the Admiralty Surface Weapons Establishment, and other ASW appointments ashore and afloat, until he commanded the frigate Active in 1978-80. During the Falklands War he served on the staff of the Commander-in-Chief, Fleet Admiral Sir John Fieldhouse.

Subsequently Gordon Lennox was head of the operations and training faculty at the school of maritime operations and he completed his career as Captain-in-Charge, Hong Kong (1990-92), and Commodore of the Admiralty Interview Board (1992-93).

Having qualified as a shallow-water diver in 1960, he devised a new method of searching a ship’s bottom for limpet mines while serving in the guided missile destroyer Kent (1963-64). Using a “necklace” of divers, guided port and starboard by swimmers on the surface, Gordon Lennox’s method was quicker and more certain than previous methodology. For this invention, he was given a prize from the Herbet Lott Fund, “the princely sum of £37 and some pennies,” but his system became standard practice throughout the fleet and Nato.

After the Navy, Gordon Lennox was head of the naval personnel vetting organisation, based in Portsmouth, until it moved to York. Besides St Dunstan’s, he supported local charities including the Midhurst branch of the Royal British Legion and was a trustee and secretary of the Coastal Forces Heritage Trust.

A tall, upright and imposing figure with a ready sense of amusement, whose calm confidence sparked self-belief in others, Gordon Lennox was much respected by his subordinates.

In 1974 Gordon Lennox married Jenny Gibbs, now Dame Jennifer Gordon Lennox, DCVO, who served as lady-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother and then to the late Queen. Jenny survives him with their two daughters and a son.

Captain Michael Gordon Lennox, born September 30 1938, died January 10 2024