Colonel Finlay Maclean
Military Knight of Windsor who once caught a 456lb, 21-foot long blue marlin in Mauritius
COLONEL FINLAY MACLEAN, who has died aged 71, was a Military Knight of Windsor, after a successful career in the Army and the Civil Service. Finlay Robin Johnston Maclean was born on August 16 1947, the third son of an Edinburgh dental surgeon. He was educated at the Edinburgh Academy where, while being academically idle, he excelled as an all-round sportsman, especially in athletics and as a nationally ranked junior tennis player.
Having been an immaculately turned-out Army cadet at school, later acquiring the nickname “Dandy”, he passed through Sandhurst, winning the Army Under-21 Tennis Championships twice, playing for the Army and being awarded an Army Blue. In 1968 he joined The Royal Scots (The Royal Regiment).
During an extensive military career, he had the habit of being posted to trouble spots at inauspicious moments. On one of several operational tours in Northern Ireland he was the first officer to disperse a rioting crowd with tear smoke, and in 1974, three months after he was sent to Cyprus, the Turks invaded.
As Signals Officer he was custodian of various codes and plans, and had to be helicoptered from Kyrenia to the Sovereign Base Area to implement them.
He worked with the police in Hong Kong, going on border patrols to deal with illegal
immigration issues and, when seconded to the Gordon Highlanders for two years, undertook a seven-month tour in Belize, both in the jungle and on the river borders with a hostile Guatemala, prior to Belize gaining independence.
A stint in Scotland involved him with royal visits and the Edinburgh Military Tattoo, before he rejoined the Royal Scots in Germany, commanding The Scottish Division Depot at Glencorse. He then served in Zimbabwe, training officers of the country’s Army, Air Force and Police and, while there, met President Mugabe, immediately judging him to be “one of the nastiest people” he had ever met.
A later post at Stanmore tasked him with assisting Lt General Willie Rous in the difficult business of implementing 3,000 redundancies among army officers. Though always fair and compassionate, Maclean came to be dubbed “the Angel of Death”.
As Deputy Assistant Chief of Staff G3 Training, at HQ Land Command near Salisbury, he had overall responsibility for 600,000 acres of Army Training Estate across the whole of Britain. This involved planting trees, refurbishing training camps and building “stone tents” to provide cover and shelter for exercising troops.
In 1998 he was on operations in Bosnia Hercegovina, receiving a formal Commendation from the United States General commanding the Nato Stabilisation Force. His final army appointment in the Army was vice-president of the Regular Commissions Board from 1999 to 2002.
Between 2002 and 2012 Maclean was on the personal staff of the Chief of the General Staff (CGS) at the Ministry of Defence. He provided advice and support to five successive heads of the army – Generals Walker, Jackson, Dannatt, Richards and Wall – dealing with senior appointments, promotions, honours and awards, at a time of constant change and numerous Army cuts.
In 2012 he was appointed a Military Knight of Windsor, 28 starred officers (including three CGSS) attending his installation. An inspirational figure, he was a founder member of the Castle’s Cinema Club, bringing a screening of Mamma Mia to the Quadrangle. Often sporting tartan trews, he stewarded at Windsor Festival concerts and lectures, gave presentations on the life of a Military Knight and delivered an outstanding “Immortal Memory” at a Lower Ward Caledonian Society Burns Night supper and for the Slough Scots.
The Dean of Windsor commended him as “a reflective person, one of quiet devotion”, for whom St George’s Chapel became “a centre of calm and contemplation”. He approached every duty with infectious dry humour and enthusiasm, was courteous in his respect of others, and valued integrity above all things, but dishonesty and disloyalty he found hard to forgive.
As Funeral Liaison Officer, he arranged his own funeral with such relish that a few months ago his wife found him lying on the floor, arms crossed over his chest, humming through the march for his service.
A keen fisherman, he was proud to have caught the biggest fish in Mauritius in 1991, a 456lb, 21-foot long blue marlin.
In 1974 Finlay Maclean married Caroline Mcdowell. She survives him along with their two daughters.