Alexander of Tunis

Alexander of Tunis 

born Harold Rupert Leofrik George Alexander, on Dec. 10, 1891. British field marshal (1944), earl (1952). Born in Tyrone (Ireland) to the family of the earl of Caledon. Graduated from Harrow and Sandhurst, the Staff College (1927), and the Imperial Defence College (1930). From 1911 in the Irish Guard.

He participated in World War I and in the British intervention in Latvia (1919). During 1934–38 he participated in the suppression of the national liberation movement in India. In 1938 he assumed command of the First Division, which participated in operations in France in 1939–40, and later commanded a corps. He led the evacuation of British forces from Dunkerque. During 1940–42 he commanded the troops of the southern military district of the home country and then the forces in Burma. In August 1942 he became commander of the forces in the Middle East (including North Africa). In February 1943, he assumed command of the Eighteenth Army Group in Tunis and then the Fifteenth Army Group in Italy. From December 1943 he was commander in chief of Allied forces in the Mediterranean theater. During 1946–52 he was governor general of Canada; he served as minister of defense from 1952 to 1954. He holds all the high orders of Great Britain. In 1943 he was awarded the Soviet Order of Suvorov First Class. He has written an autobiography, Memoirs, 1940–45 (1962).