The official known as Black Rod is most famous for his yearly role in the state opening of parliament.

That's when he walks from the House of Lords to the Commons, knocks on the doors of the chamber to say the Queen has arrived and MPs head to the Lords to hear her speech.

The monarch has been banned from the Commons since 1641, when Charles 1 attempted to have the parliamentary leadership arrested.

But the current Black Rod has found himself in the spotlight for very different reasons.

General Sir Michael Willcocks - full title Gentlemen Usher of the Black Rod - is the latest in a long line in the role.

Well-liked

Sir Michael, 57, former UK military representative to Nato, took up the post last May.

He is well-liked in the Lords and described as "straight with a sense of humour".

He has a combination of ceremonial duties, such as carrying the mace and playing a role in events such as the Queen Mother's funeral, and more mundane tasks such as arranging repairs in the Lords and arranging office space.

As an artillery officer, he served in Malaya, Borneo, Northern Ireland and Germany.

His Nato work included operational command in Bosnia and Northern Ireland Chief of Staff Land Operations at the Joint War Headquarters for the period of the Gulf War and its aftermath, which included the establishment of UK forces as part of the Kurdish Relief Operation.

Award

After working in the Ministry of Defence, he was appointed chief of staff, ACE Rapid Reaction Corps (ARRC) in September 1994.

He was deployed with the ARRC to Bosnia-Herzegovina in December 1995 where he was chief of staff of the land component of the peace implementation Force, IFOR.

He was promoted to Lieutenant General and assumed the post of deputy commander operations of the SFOR stabilisation force for Bosnia-Herzegovina based in Sarajevo in March 1999.

Sir Michael was awarded the KCB in January 2000. He became the UK military representative to NATO and the EU in Brussels in July 2000.

Married to Jean with one son and two daughters, he lists his interests as fishing, sailing, tennis, reading and music.