‘Wonga’ mercenary and clan chief at war

IT COULD almost be described as a coup of sorts. Simon Mann, a former Scots Guards officer convicted of plotting the so-called Wonga coup in Equatorial Guinea, has sparked outrage among former comrades by describing his Scottish commanding officer as “toxic”.

Brigadier Gregor MacGregor of MacGregor – Mann’s commanding officer in the Scots Guards in the mid-1970s and head of the clan MacGregor until his death in 2003 – is described in Mann’s new autobiography as a “small, toxic, red-haired, farting, foul-mouthed, stentorian dragon”.

Mann goes on to compare the highly decorated Second World War hero to the pompous cartoon character Colonel Blimp.

The comments have infuriated Brigadier MacGregor’s son, Sir Malcolm MacGregor, who also served in the Scots Guards and has taken over as head of the clan. He has written to Mann to express his anger at the remarks, which he says denigrate his father’s memory.

“I am furious,” Sir Malcolm, who is married to BBC newsreader Fiona Armstrong, told The Scotsman. “You get upset by these things, particularly if your own relations are no longer around to fight back.

“He is quite happy to character-assassinate people who are no longer alive, which is extremely bad form. There is an unwritten code in the army that you don’t write badly about people as a matter of course yet he has done so. He makes a big thing about ‘brothers in arms’ but his comments make a mockery of that.”

Mann served with the Guards in the 1970s and later with the SAS. After leaving the army he got involved in the oil trade and mercenary work in Africa.

He was arrested in 2004 and sentenced to 34 years for his part in the Wonga coup bid in Equatorial Guinea, given its name because of its financial backers. The plot also involved Mark Thatcher and former Scots Guards officer Tim Spicer. Mann was released in 2009 after being pardoned by President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo.

Sir Malcolm said: “Quite a few people in the Scots Guards, including myself, signed a petition to try to get his release from Equatorial Guinea and, indeed, Zimbabwe, when he was imprisoned there, and this is how he thanks fellow Scots Guards. You would hope something like that wouldn’t be thrown back in your face.”

Major Munro Davidson, secretary of the Scots Guards Association, who served with Mann and Brigadier MacGregor in the Guards, said: “I’m sad Simon’s put this book out and said these things. You might have thought a platoon commander was a pain but you would never say it in print.”

He said Brigadier MacGregor had been misinterpreted by Mann. “The brigadier was a very fierce man but wasn’t that bad. His bark was worse than his bite. He was a nice bloke but didn’t tolerate fools. If you did your job well you were fine. If you didn’t, woe betide you.”

Colonel Clive Fairweather, former deputy commander of the SAS who served with Mann, said: “It’s unfair to assassinate someone’s character when they can’t defend themselves. I would have thought Simon would know better. He comes from a well-known military family. You would think he’d know not to lash out in that way. It’s slightly caddish behaviour.”

However, Mann told The Scotsman he was unrepentant.

“Nobody else from the Scots Guards has complained,” he said. “On the contrary, a number of senior ex-Scots Guards officers, who knew Gregor, have said how much they enjoyed that particular Gregor passage.”

Brigadier MacGregor was commissioned at 19 and served as a platoon commander in Europe in the final months of the Second World War. He served in Malaya, saw active service in Borneo and was a defence and military attaché to the British Embassy in Athens. In later years he commanded 52nd (Lowlands) Brigade, based at Edinburgh Castle, and, as clan chief, attended gatherings all over the world.

Sir Malcolm said he was concerned the book may be turned into a film. “If there is a film I hope my father is not portrayed in that way. It would be incredibly unfair as he is no longer here to defend himself.”