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
Service number10503
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
Mentioned in dispatches[3]

Military career

Born in Ilminster, Somerset in March 1897, Callander was educated at Ilminster Grammar School,[4] and West Buckland School.[3]

Shortly after the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914, Callander entered the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, and, after passing out from there, was commissioned into the Royal Munster Fusiliers in June 1915.[5][6] He served with his regiment during the conflict, gaining the Military Cross in 1916[7] but being wounded three times.[3]

Remaining in the army during the interwar period, he transferred to the Leicestershire Regiment in 1922,[6] married the following year and was .[3] After attending the Staff College, Camberley from 1933 to 1934,[8] he was promoted to major in 1936[3] and went to the North West Frontier in India in 1938,[6] for which he was mentioned in dispatches.[3]

He served during the Second World War, becoming General Officer Commanding (GOC) 54th (East Anglian) Infantry Division, upon his promotion to the acting rank of major-general on 17 May 1943.[9][10] This was followed by becoming GOC 76th Infantry Division in December 1943, before being assigned GOC 4th Division in Greece in December 1944.[6] In 1945 he took the unconditional surrender at Knossos of German Forces serving in Crete under Generalmajor Hans-Georg Benthack.[11]

He became GOC 2nd Division in the British Army of the Rhine (BAOR) in 1949 and Director General of Military Training at the War Office before that, in 1948.[6][3][10] He was appointed Military Secretary in 1954 and retired in 1957.[6] From 1954 to 1963 he was Colonel of the Royal Leicestershire Regiment from 1954 to 1963.[12][10] He retired to Kent, where he spent his final years until his death in 1979, at the age of 82.[13]

References
  1. England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858–1995
  2. "Obituary". The Times. 2 June 1979. p. 12.
  3. Smart 2005, p. 54.
  4. "Ilminster Grammar School". Archived from the original on 26 July 2008.
  5. "No. 29193". The London Gazette. 15 June 1915. p. 5760.
  6. "Colin Callander". Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives. Archived from the original on 23 December 2012. Retrieved 7 June 2020.
  7. "No. 29765". The London Gazette (Supplement). 26 September 1916. p. 9423.
  8. "No. 33904". The London Gazette. 20 January 1934. p. 442.
  9. "No. 36031". The London Gazette (Supplement). 25 May 1943. p. 2374.
  10. "Biography of Lieutenant-General Colin Bishop Callander (1897−1979), Great Britain". generals.dk.
  11. Beevor, Antony (2005). Crete: The Battle and the Resistance. John Murray. p. 176. ISBN 978-0-7195-6831-2.
  12. "The Leicestershire Regiment". regiments.org. Archived from the original on 8 January 2007. Retrieved 9 July 2016.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  13. Smart 2005, p. 55.

Bibliography
  • Smart, Nick (2005). Biographical Dictionary of British Generals of the Second World War. Barnesley: Pen & Sword. ISBN 1844150496.
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