Major Gordon Burt, decorated officer with the Paras and intelligence gatherer in Northern Ireland – obituary
Major Gordon Burt, who has died aged 88, served in the Parachute Regiment and with the Special Forces; he was awarded an MC for his services as an intelligence officer in Northern Ireland.
Burt was commissioned into the Parachute Regiment in 1970. After three years as second in command of the Junior Parachute Company, he was posted to the 3rd Battalion (3 Para) and went to Northern Ireland as an intelligence officer.
The CO, Lieutenant-Colonel (later Major-General) Keith Spacie, took over responsibility for the nationalist area of Ardoyne. While he did not permit “no-go” areas, he fostered a relaxed attitude with the local population. Patrolling was done on foot rather than in vehicles and more mature soldiers were chosen for contacts with the community.
Burt excelled at intelligence-gathering through personal contact, and his combination of toughness, tact and humour could lower the temperature in fraught situations – whether he was dealing with angry residents during a house search or on a late-night visit to an illegal drinking den.
Covert surveillance operations in sensitive areas could lead to a violent response from the IRA, and to meet the scale of these challenges called for rigorous training together with courage and resourcefulness of a high order. The award to Burt of a Military Cross for gallant services was gazetted in December 1973.
Godfrey (later Gordon) Rowland Burt was born at the Royal Victoria Hospital, Netley, Southampton, on October 15 1932. His father was in the RAMC in the First World War and then served in the hospital for the remainder of his working life. His mother was a nurse with the Red Cross.
Godfrey left school aged 14 and in 1947 enlisted in the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME) and went to the Apprentice College, Arborfield. He trained as an armourer and joined the boxing team.
After completing a parachute course, he was posted to the Canal Zone and transferred from the REME to 1st Battalion The Parachute Regiment (1 Para). He changed his first name to Gordon and took up athletics and cross-country running, captaining the battalion’s team when they won the Army Major Units championship nine times in a row. He also won the Ben Nevis Race in 1963 and the Army Steeplechase four times.
After two years in Canada working in industry, Burt returned to England and served with 1 Para, 16th Independent Parachute Brigade, in the Canal Zone (1951-54) and Cyprus (1955-58), taking part in the landings at Suez in 1956. He served in Aden and subsequently with 2 Para in the intervention in Anguilla in 1969.
An inspirational leader and trainer, in the mid-1970s he worked with the Special Forces in Northern Ireland which resulted in his return to special operations as an instructor in the few years before he left the Army.
In 1981 he retired from the Regular Army and for the next 11 years served as Permanent Staff Administration Officer with 1st Battalion The Wessex Regiment (Rifle Volunteers). Having qualified as a climbing instructor, he took soldiers rock climbing and abseiling in Cornwall every year and went to Cyprus and the Alps in search of new challenges.
For 15 years he was a local councillor. He was also a governor at his children’s school and secretary of a number of working mens’ clubs and branches of the Royal British Legion. He was still running in his 60s but after a heart bypass operation in 2006 and a hip replacement in 2009, his active life was restricted.
He had a strong Christian faith and in 2019 he became a Roman Catholic.
He married, in 1982, Jennifer Williams, who survives him with their son and two daughters, and three children from a previous marriage.
Gordon Burt, born October 15 1932, died March 4 2021
