Lieutenant General Sir George Mackworth Bullock, (15 August 1851 – 28 January 1926) was an officer of the British Army. He served during World War I, rising to the rank of lieutenant general, and was also the one-hundred and eighth civil Governor and military Commander-in-Chief of Bermuda (the office of Commander-in-Chief, Bermuda was re-titled General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Bermuda at the same time).
Early life and education
Bullock was born in British India in August 1851 at Warangal, the son of Susannah Juliana née Dennis (c1814—1866) and Col Thomas Henry Bullock (c1808—1868), Deputy Commissioner of Berar. He was educated at Cheltenham College, University College, Oxford, and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. He was the younger brother of Frederick Bullock.
Military career
Bullock was commissioned into the 1st Battalion of the 11th Regiment of Foot as a lieutenant on 24 April 1872, and attended the Staff College at Camberley in 1880. Promotion to captain followed on 22 February 1882, to major on 29 May 1891, and to lieutenant-colonel on 18 January 1897. He was Commanding Officer (CO) of the 2nd Battalion of the Devonshire Regiment (as the 11th Regiment of Foot, in which Bullock was commissioned, was now known) who were deployed to South Africa for the Second Boer War, and in 1902 was in command at Volksrust, where there was an internment camp for the Boers. He was mentioned in despatches (including by Lord Kitchener dated 23 June 1902). The war ended in June 1902, and Bullock left Cape Town on the SS Scot in September, returning home. For his services Bullock was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) in the April 1901 South Africa Honours list (the award was dated to 29 November 1900) and he received the actual decoration from King Edward VII at Buckingham Palace on 24 October 1902.
After the sudden death of the Chief Staff Officer in Egypt later the same year, Bullock was appointed to this position with the substantive rank of colonel on 21 November 1902. Staying in Egypt, he became Brigadier-General commanding Alexandria District in 1904 and General Officer Commanding British Troops in Egypt in 1905. After returning home, he was appointed General Officer Commanding the West Riding Division in 1910.
Bullock was appointed Governor and military General Officer Commanding-in-Chief of Bermuda, a strategic Imperial fortress colony (now described as a British Overseas Territory) in the North Atlantic Ocean with a disproportionately large garrison, effective 11 May 1912 (with Lieutenant Pyeec Roland Bradford Lawrence, Coldstream Guards, as his Aide-de-Camp).
Bullock is remembered as moving Government House to the centre of Bermuda's social life. The British Government saw Bermuda more as a base than as a colony. Since the American War of Independence, the Royal Naval Dockyard, Bermuda had been constructed and served as the headquarters of the Royal Navy in the western North Atlantic, and the large Bermuda Garrison had been built up to defend it. Vast sums had been spent in the 19th century on fortifying the islands, and its governors were appointed almost exclusively from the general officers of the British Army, especially from the Royal Engineers and the Royal Artillery.
Bullock's predecessors had kept a distance from Bermuda's civilian population, but he made efforts to interact socially, opening Government House to prominent Bermudians and visitors, such as US President-elect Woodrow Wilson, for social functions. He also made efforts to take part in the normal social life of the colony.
When Britain declared war on Germany in 1914, during the First World War, Bullock was temporarily overseas on leave, having left on the 25 July. The CO of the Second Battalion of the Lincolnshire Regiment (2 Lincolns), based at Prospect Camp, Lieutenant-Colonel George Bunbury McAndrew, found himself acting Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Bermuda in Bullock's absence, and oversaw the colony's placement onto a war footing. His leave cancelled, Bullock returned to Bermuda on the 7 August.