George Bullock (British Army officer)

Sir George M. Bullock KCMG, KCB, was an officer of the British Army. He served during the First World War, rising to the rank of lieutenant general, and was also the one-hundred and eighth Governor, Commander-in-Chief and Vice Admiral of Bermuda.

After serving as a general officer, he was appointed Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Bermuda, a strategic colony (now described as a British Overseas Territory) in the North Atlantic Ocean, in 1912, serving in this post until 1917. He was preceded by Lieutenant-General Sir Walter Kitchener, brother of Field-Marshal Lord Kitchener of Khartoum.

Sir George 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 served as the headquarters of the Royal Navy in the western North Atlantic, and a large garrison, the 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.

Sir George'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, Sir George was temporarily overseas. The commanding officer of the Second Battalion of the Lincolnshire Regiment (2 Lincolns), based at Prospect Camp, Lieutenant-Colonel George Bunbury McAndrew, found himself acting governor, Commander-In-Chief, and Vice-Admiral of Bermuda in his absence, and oversaw the colony's placement onto a war footing. The battalion returned to England on 3 October 1914, and was sent to the Western Front soon after.

A contingent from the Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps (BVRC) was detached in December 1914 to train for the Front. It was hoped this could join 2 Lincolns, but when it arrived in England 2 Lincolns was already in France. it was attached as an extra company to the First Battalion (1 Lincolns) instead, and was the first colonial volunteer unit to reach the Western Front when it arrived there in June, 1915. The contingent had trained at Warwick Camp, in Bermuda, over the winter of 1914-1915. As the BVRC still had to meet its obligations as part of the garrison, maintaining patrols and guarding key points around the archipelago, it did not have enough officers to provide an Adjutant to the cadre. Sir George filled this role himself, a job normally performed by a captain. The contingent, as a result, was popularly known as Bullock's Boys.

Sir George retired from the governorship in 1917, being succeeded by General Sir James Willcocks.