Gordon Gentle

Who was Gordon Gentle?

Fusilier Gordon Gentle was a 19 year old soldier from Pollok, Glasgow, who died in Iraq on 28 June 2004, after completing his 26-week basic training course at the Infantry Training Centre in Catterick. He was serving with the 1st Battalion Royal Highland Fusiliers. Gordon's lightly armoured Snatch Land Rover was destroyed by a roadside bomb. His mother Rose Gentle has since campaigned for better protected vehicles for UK forces and the return of British troops from Iraq. With Reg Keys she is a founder member of Military Families Against the War.

An inquest in to his death commenced in Oxford on 29 October 2007. The Inquest recently concluded that his death was 'unlawful' as an Electronic countermeasures device designed to protect against improvised explosive devices was due to be fitted to the Royal Highland Fusiliers' Land Rovers hours before his death, and the device was only not fitted sooner due to a breakdown in communications and Logistics.