Edward Jones ( British Army officer ) General Sir Charles Edward Webb Jones , KCB , CVO , CBE ( 25 September 1936 – 14 May 2007 ) was a senior officer in the British Army . He served as Quartermaster - General and as Britain ' s military representative to the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation ( NATO ) . He retired from the Army in 1995 to become Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod ( or simply Black Rod ) in the British Parliament ' s House of Lords , serving in that office until 2001 . Early life and education . Jones was born in Altrincham in Cheshire . His father was General Sir Charles Phibbs Jones . Uniquely , he and his father were the only father and son to be members of the Army Board during the 20th century . He was educated at Portora Royal School in Enniskillen . He went up to Pembroke College , Cambridge , intending to pursue a career in the Diplomatic Service , but left after only 10 days to join the Army instead . Career . He attended Royal Military Academy Sandhurst , where he won the Infantry Sword of Honour , and was commissioned as an officer in the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry in 1956 . He served in operations against EOKA in Cyprus , and in Malaysia , countering incursions by Indonesia into northern Borneo , in the early 1960s . His regiment became the 1st Green Jackets ( 43rd and 52nd ) in 1958 , and was merged into The Royal Green Jackets in 1966 , becoming its 1st Battalion . Jones married Suzanne Leschallas in 1965 . They had two sons and a daughter together . He took command of the 1st Battalion for a tour in South Armagh in 1975 , and was mentioned in dispatches . During his period of command , the internal operations of his battalion were exposed to public scrutiny in Edward Mirzoeff ' s film , " The Regiment " . He also served with the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus in 1976 . In the late 1970s , he was the colonel in charge of MO4 , the office at the Ministry of Defence responsible for Northern Ireland at the height of the Troubles , when Airey Neave was murdered by a bomb at the House of Commons car park , and Provisional Irish Republican Army detainees undertook hunger strikes . Jones attended the Royal College of Defence Studies in 1980 , and was promoted to brigadier in 1981 to take command of the 6th Armoured Brigade in Germany , his first duty with the British Army of the Rhine . He then took command of a British military team in Zimbabwe in 1983 , establishing a working workmanlike relationship with Robert Mugabe in the years after Zimbabwe became independent in 1980 , for which he was appointed CBE . He was promoted to major - general in 1985 , and became Director - General of the Territorial Army at the Ministry of Defence . He then took command of the 3rd Armoured Division in Germany in 1987 . He received the KCB in 1988 when he was promoted to lieutenant - general , when he returned to London to become Quartermaster - General to the Forces . He was tasked with remodelling the Army ' s logistics after the end of the Cold War , and continued in that position through the 1991 Gulf War . He was also Colonel Commandant of the Royal Army Education Corps from 1986 to 1992 , and of the Royal Green Jackets from 1988 to 1995 . He was promoted a full general in 1992 , and became the UK Military Representative to NATO in Brussels , where he was able to make use of his fluent French . Retirement . He retired from the Army in 1995 to become Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod ( and " ex officio " Serjeant - at - Arms in the House of Lords , and Secretary to the Lord Great Chamberlain ) . The House of Lords Act 1999 was passed during his period of service , ending the right of hereditary peer s to sit in the House of Lords . He served as Black Rod from 9 May 1995 to 8 May 2001 , and became a CVO when he retired in 2001 . He was a commissioner of the Royal Hospital , Chelsea and chairman of the Council of Territorial Army , Volunteers and Reserves Associations from 1995 to 2001 . He was also a vice - patron of St Dunstan ' s , a governor of Wellington College from 1997 to 2007 , and chairman of the governors of Eagle House from 1999 to 2007 . He retired to a village in Wiltshire . He died while fishing on the River Findhorn in Inverness - shire . He was survived by his wife and their three children . References .