Colin Callander

Lieutenant-General Sir Colin Bishop Callander KCB KBE MC (13 March 1897 – 31 May 1979) was a senior British Army officer who went on to be Military Secretary.

Sir Colin Callander
Birth nameColin Bishop Callander
Born13 March 1897
Ilminster, Somerset, England
Died31 May 1979(1979-05-31) (aged 82)[1]
Cranbrook, Kent, England[2]
Allegiance United Kingdom
Service/branch British Army
Years of service1915–1957
RankLieutenant-General
UnitRoyal Munster Fusiliers
Leicestershire Regiment
Commands held1/5th Battalion, Leicestershire Regiment
159th Infantry Brigade
54th (East Anglian) Infantry Division
76th Infantry Division
4th Infantry Division
2nd Division
Battles/warsWorld War I
World War II
AwardsKnight Commander of the Order of the Bath
Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire
Military Cross

Military career

Educated at Ilminster Grammar School,[3] Callander was commissioned into the Royal Munster Fusiliers in 1915 during the First World War.[4] He transferred to the Leicestershire Regiment in 1922[4] and went to the North West Frontier in India in 1938.[4]

He served during the Second World War becoming General Officer Commanding (GOC) 54th (East Anglian) Infantry Division in May 1943 and GOC 76th Infantry Division in December 1943, before being assigned GOC 4th Division in Greece in December 1944.[4] In 1945 he took the unconditional surrender at Knossos of German Forces serving in Crete under General Benthag.[5]

He became GOC 2nd Division in the British Army of the Rhine in 1949 and Director General of Military Training at the War Office in 1948.[4] He was appointed Military Secretary in 1954 and retired in 1957.[4] From 1954 to 1963 he was Colonel of the Royal Leicestershire Regiment.[6]

References

  1. England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858–1995
  2. "Obituary". The Times. The Times Digital Archive. 2 June 1979. p. 12.
  3. "Ilminster Grammar School". Archived from the original on 26 July 2008.
  4. "Colin Callander". Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives. Retrieved 7 June 2020.
  5. Beevor, Antony (2005). Crete: The Battle and the Resistance. John Murray. p. 176. ISBN 978-0-7195-6831-2.
  6. "The Leicestershire Regiment". regiments.org. Archived from the original on 8 January 2007. Retrieved 9 July 2016.CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
Military offices
Preceded by
Charles Wainwright
GOC 54th (East Anglian) Infantry Division
MayDecember 1943
Succeeded by
Cyril Lomax
(as GOC East Anglia District)
Preceded by
William Ozanne
GOC 76th Infantry Division
19431944
Succeeded by
John Utterson-Kelso
Preceded by
Alfred Dudley Ward
GOC 4th Infantry Division
19451946
Succeeded by
Ernest Down
Preceded by
Philip Balfour
GOC 2nd Division
19491951
Succeeded by
Basil Coad
Preceded by
Sir Euan Miller
Military Secretary
19541957
Succeeded by
Sir Hugh Stockwell
Preceded by
Harold Pinder
Colonel of the Royal Leicestershire Reginent
19541963
Succeeded by
Sir Douglas Kendrew
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