General Sir Michael Gow

GENERAL Sir Michael Gow of the Scots Guards, who has died aged 88, fought in Normandy, was one of the first British soldiers to see the horrors of the Belsen concentration camp and went on to command the British Army of the Rhine and northern Nato forces during the Cold War years of the early 1980s.

He also served as the Army's General Officer Commanding (GOC) Scotland, as governor of Edinburgh Castle and ADC General, a senior aide-de-camp to the Queen. His past titles included brigadier, Queen's bodyguard for Scotland and president of the Royal British Legion for Scotland.

When he retired in 1986 he was the Army's most senior general and the longest-serving member in the history of the Scots Guards. He was knighted in 1979 and appointed Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath in 1983.

He was wounded in Belgium four months after D-Day but returned to the frontlines with the Scots Guards in April 1945, just before they reached the infamous Nazi extermination camp at Belsen. After the Second World War he went on to command a Scots Guards company fighting terrorists in the Malayan Emergency, and also served in Kenya in the 1960s.

Despite a long and varied military career, it was one day in April 1945 when his Scots Guard battalion arrived at the just-liberated Belsen camp that remained his most unforgettable experience. Alongside him were his Scots Guards comrades Bob Runcie (later to become Archbishop of Canterbury) and Willie Whitelaw (later to become Viscount Whitelaw and Home Secretary for the Tory Government).

Although from an old Scots family of artists and academics, James Michael Gow was born in Sheffield and attended Winchester College public school in Hampshire. After his father died when Michael was a child, he was brought up by his mother, his grandfather and his stepfather Alastair Sanderson, a soldier in the Seaforth Highlanders who was killed in 1940 just before the evacuation from Dunkirk. By then, young Michael, not yet turned 16, had signed up for a Home Guard platoon based at his Winchester school.

Many years later, Dad's Army would become his favourite television programme. "I love it," he once said. "I remember chatting to the Queen Mother and somehow we got on to the war. I said: 'Your Majesty, my favourite programme is Dad's Army.' She said: 'Isn't that funny, so is mine.' She asked who did I like best. I said I thought Captain Mainwaring was marvellous. She said she liked Frazer because he was a Scot. She knew more about the programme than I did."

He enlisted in the Scots Guards in 1942, recalling years later that his drill sergeant described him as "a bag of manure tied up with pink string". He was something of a fitness freak and a fine boxer, although he broke his nose three times in the ring during Army bouts.

A month after D-Day he landed in Normandy with the 3rd (Tank) Battalion of the Scots Guards. Wounded during the push inland, he was evacuated to England in October 1944 but was back in action six months later as the allies moved towards Berlin. Soon afterwards he was devastated by the news that his beloved big brother, Captain Roddy Gow, who had been listed as missing in action had in fact been killed. "On my 21st birthday, I went to a war cemetery in Belgium and the first grave I saw was his. When people ask what did you do on your 21st, that's what I did. He was more than my brother, he was my best friend."

He met Jane Emily Scott, a Wren during the war, married her in 1946 and they went on to have a son and four daughters. After serving as a company commander with the 2nd Battalion Scots Guards during the Malaya Emergency, he returned to the UK as an equerry to the Duke of Gloucester. In 1964 he commanded the 2nd Battalion Scots Guards in Kenya during "a little bit of a local bust-up".

In 1979 he was appointed GOC Scotland and governor of Edinburgh Castle and the following year was named commander-in-chief, British Army of the Rhine and Commander Northag – the Northern Army roup of Nato – commanding the big Rheindahlen base in Mönchengladbach for three years. During that time he held the mostly honorary position of ADC General to the Queen. He would also belong to the Royal Company of Archers.

Retired in Edinburgh, he was a keen sailor, published articles in military journals and wrote several, usually witty, books about his experiences as a soldier. They included General Reflections (1991) and Stand Easy (1993), the latter co-authored by his friend Charles Millman.

He died in Edinburgh and is survived by his wife of 67 years, Lady Jane, a son, four daughters and several grandchildren and great grandchildren.