Colonel Greville Wyndham Tufnell, CVO, DL 1932-2023

Colonel Greville Wyndham Tufnell, CVO, DL, Grenadier Guards, who died 10 July, 2023, aged 91, was a scion of that landed gentry family, and was the step-grandfather of (Count) Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, husband of Princess Beatrice.

Colonel Tufnell died in a nursing home in Cirencester. He was Regimental Lieutenant Colonel of the Grenadier Guards for two years from 1976-78, at a time when it was a full-time appointment for a serving officer. He was born in April 1932 and the son of Major Kenneth Edward Mortimer Tufnell, MC (1902-1976).

He was married twice; firstly, 2 March, 1962, as her second husband, the Hon Anne Rosemary Trench (1936-1992), widow of Capt Timothy Patrick Arnold Gosselin, Scots Guards (who died 17 March, 1961), and daughter of the 5th Baron Ashtown (1901-79), and his wife the former Ellen Nancy Garton (died 1949); he married secondly, 1994, Mrs Susan Arnot Burrows (nee Heath, who died 1 Nov, 2018, aged 87), widow of Robert David Burrows (1929-1993).

He leaves three daughters from his first marriage, Caroline (1963-2018), Belinda (born 18 Jun 1964), and Georgina (born 27 Oct, 1968). His step-daughter, Nicola Diana (Nikki) Burrows, MBE (born 1956 - now Nikki Williams-Ellis) is the mother of Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi (born 1 Nov, 1983), husband of HRH Princess Beatrice (b 8 Aug, 1988).

After Eton College he followed his uncle into the Regiment (Capt Neville Tufnell, in his youth a first class cricketer, later a Gentleman Usher to HM King George VI), joining the 3rd Battalion on the Canal Zone in August 1952, based at Deversoir on the Great Bitter Lake for two years. This was a different age; the effective strength of the Regiment (as at 31 March 1952) was 134 officers and 3197 Other Ranks, including 614 National Servicemen and his early career was a busy and challenging one.

After instructing at the Guards Depot and then two years as ADC to Maj Gen Geordie Gordon Lennox in the 3rd Division, he became Adjutant of the 2nd Battalion in 1959, based in Hubbelrath. Following attendance at the Staff College in Camberley, he returned to the 2nd Battalion in London; in 1965 he was one of four Grenadier officers to stand vigil during the Lying-in-State of Sir Winston Churchill in Westminster Hall. By the late 1960’s he was The Captain and this included a memorable nine-month unaccompanied tour to Sharjah. He went on to command the 1st Battalion from 1971-73, initially employed on Public Duties in Chelsea Barracks, later in Munster as a Mechanized Battalion. During his command there were two lively emergency tours to Northern Ireland, the first starting in August 1971, when the battalion moved at a week’s notice to Belfast. While there, it took part in some of the most bitter fighting ever seen in the City and the first live round was fired in action by a Grenadier since 1961.

Colonel Tufnell retired from the Army after completing his tour as Regimental Lieutenant Colonel, but he remained active in Gloucestershire and he served as President of the Cheltenham and District Branch of the Association for many years . He became Lieutenant of the Queen’s Bodyguard of the Yeoman of the Guard and was appointed CVO in 2001. 

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