The original dog of war dies

Bob Denard left behind him a trail of toppled tyrants across the globe, says william langley

It had been quite an evening for Bob Denard. Barely an hour after being acquitted of murder in the Paris Assize Court, the imperishable mercenary was in a basement bar surrounded by a gang of men with huge shoulders and no necks who were taking turns to slap their old commander on the back.

No one could believe that he had beaten the rap. Accused of machine-gunning the president of the Comoros Islands - a down-on-its-luck archipelago in the Indian Ocean - Denard had successfully claimed to be acting in the higher interests of civilisation.

In his time Denard, 78, had been blown up by land mines, set ablaze by a flame-thrower, and run over in his sleep by a tank. On Saturday, however, death from old age came calling for the man who inspired Frederick Forsyth's novel The Dogs of War, and there was no escape.

Bob was a prolific soldier of fortune, delivering to order rebellions, invasions and paid-by-the-hour coups d’etats

In his prime, Bob was the world's most prolific soldier of fortune, delivering to-order rebellions, invasions and paid-by-the-hour coups d'etats. His freewheeling band of white mercenaries left behind a trail of toppled tyrants.

He was born Gilbert Bourgeaud, in south-western France. At the age of 16 he joined the French Navy, but was dismissed after four months for starting a brawl in a Saigon whorehouse. In the early 1960s, he set off for the Congo where Western mining companies were recruiting freelance military help.

He battled communist guerrillas in Angola, staged a bizarre invasion of Benin - a former French colony - with 100 men on bicycles, and fought for the Smith regime in Rhodesia. In 1975, Denard was commissioned by murky business interests to invade the Comoros Island, and for the next 20 years, he would become the territory's de facto ruler.

"Men have always fought for money," he once told me. "I like to think I fought for the right side, too."