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Alexander Maurice Cameron

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For other people named Alexander Cameron, see Alexander Cameron (disambiguation).

Sir Alexander Cameron
Born30 May 1898
Devon, England[1]
Died25 December 1986 (aged 88)
AllegianceUnited Kingdom
Service / branchBritish Army
Years of service1916–1954
RankLieutenant General
Service number9292
UnitRoyal Engineers
CommandsEast Africa Command
Battles / warsFirst World War
Second World War
Mau Mau Uprising
AwardsKnight Commander of the Order of the British Empire
Companion of the Order of the Bath
Military Cross

Lieutenant General Sir Alexander Maurice Cameron KBE CB MC (30 May 1898 – 25 December 1986) was a senior British Army officer who became General Officer Commanding (GOC) East Africa Command.

Military career

Cameron was commissioned into the Royal Engineers in 1916.[2] He served in World War I in France and Belgium[2] taking part in the Battle of Passchendaele for which he received the Military Cross.[3]

After the War he attended the Staff College, Camberley from 1928 to 1929, alongside fellow students such as John Harding, Gerald Templer, Richard McCreery, Gordon MacMillan, Gerard Bucknall and Alexander Galloway,[4] Cameron was deployed to South Persia and then took part in operations in Kurdistan.[2] He became a brigade major in India in 1934 and then a General Staff Officer in the Anti-Aircraft Corps in 1936.[2]

He served in World War II initially as a General Staff Officer with Anti-Aircraft Command and then as Commander of an anti-aircraft brigade from 1942.[2] He was on the staff of Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Force from 1944 to 1945.[2] At this time he started constructing an Allied version of the V-2 rocket.[3]

After the War he became Commander of the Special Project Operations Group which took control of the German guided missile installations.[2] He then became Deputy Quartermaster General for the Royal Engineers in 1945 and Major-General in charge of Administration for Middle East Land Forces in Egypt in 1948.[2]

He was appointed General Officer Commanding East Africa Command in 1951 and, following the Mau Mau Uprising in 1952, was replaced by General Sir George Erskine, becoming Erskine's Second in Command in 1953; he retired in 1954.[2]

He was Director of Civil Defence for South East Region in the UK from 1955 to 1960.[2]

References

  1. ^ Dod's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage, of Great Britain and Ireland. S. Low, Marston and Company. 1923. p. 148.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives
  3. ^ a b Lieutenant Colonel John Ancrum Cameron Royal Engineers
  4. ^ Smart 2005, p. 55.

Bibliography

  • Smart, Nick (2005). Biographical Dictionary of British Generals of the Second World War. Barnesley: Pen & Sword. ISBN 1844150496.
Military offices
Preceded by GOC East Africa Command
1951−1953 		Succeeded by
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