Lieutenant-Colonel G. Douglas Renny
1st Battalion King’s Own Scottish Borderers
5th/7th Battalion, Gordon Highlanders

During this period, Capt. Renny worked day and night, with energy, and efficiency, completing with a difficult task having to deal with inexperienced and poorly trained Units. Toward the end of the period when fatigue was overcoming him, he struggled on, remaining cheerful and confident and showing a fine devotion to duty in spite of the difficulty of getting complicated orders for a withdrawal issued in very short time

(M.C. citation, 1940)

Born on 30 December 1908 in Punjab, India, George Douglas Renny was the son of a Royal Artillery colonel and the grandson of George Renny who earned the Victoria Cross during the Indian Mutiny. Following his family’s military tradition, the youngest Renny attended Sandhurst and took a commission with the King’s Own Scottish Borderers. In June 1940, he was assigned to be brigade major of the improvised “A” Brigade under Brigadier M.A. Green. After the retreat and evacuation, Green recommended him for the Military Cross, writing: “Capt. Renny himself had little experience and had not been under fire before. In view of all this I consider his work to have been of a high standard and his devotion to duty worthy of recognition.”

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