Alexander Galloway

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For the author and associate professor, see Alexander R. Galloway.
For the Scottish clergyman, see Canon Alexander Galloway.

Sir Alexander Galloway
Nickname(s)"Sandy"
Born(1895-11-03)3 November 1895
Mentioned in Despatches (3)[2][3]
War Cross (Greece)[4]
Knight Grand Officer of the Order of Orange Nassau with Swords (Netherlands)[5]
Military Order of the White Lion (Czechoslovakia)[1]
War Cross (Czechoslovakia)[6]
Order of Merit 1st Class (Czechoslovakia)[7]

Italian Campaign
in early 1944.

Early life and military career

Born in

Gallipoli, in Egypt and Palestine, and on the Western Front.[1] In 1917, he gained a commission in the Regular Army,[1] returned to the Scottish Rifles,[10] and was promoted to captain in July.[11] He was awarded the Military Cross (MC) in 1918.[12]

Between the wars

Remaining in the British Army during the interwar period, Galloway had a number of regimental and staff jobs, serving from 1925 to 1926 as adjutant to the 2nd Battalion, Cameronians. He attended the Staff College, Camberley for a year from January 1928[13] and graduated in December 1929. His fellow students there included several future general officers such as Richard McCreery, Gerald Templer, John Harding, Gerard Bucknall, William Holmes, Philip Gregson-Ellis, Gordon MacMillan and I. S. O. Playfair. His appointment after graduating was as including appointments as staff captain at HQ Cairo in February 1930[14] and also as brigade major of the Canal Brigade in Egypt[15] from February 1932.[16] He returned to the Staff College, Camberley in February 1937[17] July 1938[18][19] as an instructor, and several of his fellow instructors would rise to prominence in the war.[1]

Galloway was promoted to major in December 1933 (having previously been made brevet major)[20] and was made brevet lieutenant-colonel in January 1935.[21] His promotion to lieutenant-colonel came on completing his period instructing at the Staff College in 1938.[22]

Second World War

At the outbreak of the

Second World War Galloway was commanding the 1st Battalion The Cameronians. In February 1940 he was selected to command, in the rank of acting brigadier, the new Staff College at Haifa in Palestine. In August he was appointed chief staff officer (BGS – Brigadier-General Staff) to Lieutenant-General Henry Maitland Wilson's HQ British Troops Egypt.[1] Wilson lent Galloway to Richard O'Connor, commander of the Western Desert Force to help in the planning of Operation Compass.[15] His substantive rank was advanced to full colonel in December 1940.[23]

In early 1941, while still Wilson's BGS, Galloway traveled to Greece (with a pause in Crete where, between 19 February and 7 March,

Commander of the Order of the British Empire in July.[25]

Although sent as part of

Willoughby Norrie (XXX Corps) and Reade Godwin-Austen (XIII Corps) felt the offensive should be continued. These views Galloway passed on during the subsequent conference with Auchinleck at Eighth Army HQ. Consequently, Auchinleck ordered Cunningham to continue the offensive. Although Rommel's "dash to the wire", an attempt to sever Eighth Army's lines of supply, caused alarm and confusion in Eighth Army's rear echelon, Rommel's armour was held at the Libyan border with Egypt by the artillery of 4th Indian Infantry Division and then forced to retrace its steps as a result of lack of supply. Eighth Army thus regained the initiative and by January had pushed the Axis forces out of Cyrenaica.[27]

During Crusader on 27 November 1941, Galloway was promoted acting major-general,

North Africa campaign since the Battle of Gazala the year before.[31]

During the division's period of re-fitting and training in North Africa Galloway's rank of major-general was made substantive in December 1943[33] and then in March 1944 he had an interlude in Italy when Major General Francis Tuker, the commander of the 4th Indian Infantry Division, which was in the front line at Cassino fell ill. Galloway arrived to take temporary command on 8 March 1944, in time for the Third Battle of Monte Cassino. In ten days of desperate fighting the Germans succeeded in holding the Allied attack and by 25 March the effort was called off. Galloway's division had to be withdrawn, having sustained some 3,000 casualties during its time at Cassino, and Galloway returned to 1st Armoured Division.[34]

In May 1944 1st Armoured Division was moved to Italy but Galloway saw no action with his division as, in poor health as a result of his time at Cassino, he was shipped back to the UK in mid-August to recuperate.[35] In early 1945, returned to good health, Galloway spent a month in command of 3rd Infantry Division while Lashmer Whistler took leave.

During the winter of 1944/45 the Germans, responding to civil disobedience in the Netherlands, closed the canals thus preventing the distribution of food and fuel. A District HQ was set up under Galloway who together with

Canadian First Army pushed into the Netherlands with Galloway's organisation following. In mid-April a truce was agreed with the German occupying forces allowing relief supplies to be carried to the occupied zones (which happened to be the most highly populated regions of the country) by air (Operation Manna) and road (Operation Faust).[35]

Post war

At the end of the war Galloway was appointed Chief of Staff of 21st Army Group, replacing the exhausted

Companion of the Order of the Bath in the 1946 New Year Honours.[37]

Galloway was Commander-in-Chief

Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1949.[42] Galloway retired from the army 17 February 1950.[43]

In July 1951, Galloway was appointed director of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in Jordan. Galloway was unusually blunt for one in a diplomatic role, which created friction between his office and the host government, and with the British Legation in Amman. The legation's annual report for 1951 emphasized the deteriorating economy and the transformation of Jordanian politics in the aftermath of Abdullah's assassination. With regard to Palestinian refugees the report notes efforts to reduce ration rolls and the attempts to persuade refugees to 'build protection against the coming winter' were 'interpreted by the refugees as resettlement outside of Palestine and a surrender of the right to return.'[44]

According to an unverified yet

American Christian Palestine Committee, made in 1953 during the Hearings Before the Subcommittee on the Near East and Africa of the Committee on Foreign Relations, Galloway made in 1952 a statement to a group of visiting American church leaders regarding the problem of Arab refugees arising from the 1948 Israeli-Arab War:

It is perfectly clear than the Arab nations do not want to solve the Arab refugee problem. They want to keep it as an open sore, as an affront against the United Nations and as a weapon against Israel. Arab leaders don’t give a damn whether the refugees live or die.[44][45][46][47]

Successive retelling of this quote over the intervening years has resulted in some instances of Galloway's identity being lost and the quote erroneously attributed to a (non-existent) UNRWA employee, Ralph Galloway.[44][45]

In an op-ed in the same year Galloway was even more blunt about UNRWA: "Staff begets more staff. Plan follows plan. Typewriters click. Brochures and statistics pour out. The refugees remain and eat, and complain and breed; while a game of political 'last touch' goes on between the local governments and the director, UNRWA". He went on to say: "There is need to distinguish between a tempting political maneuver and the hard, unpalatable fact that the refugees cannot in the foreseeable future return to their homes in Palestine. To get this acceptance is a matter of politics: It is beyond the function of UNRWA." For this statement, Galloway was fired at the demand of the Jordanian government.[44]

Galloway's formal employment with UNRWA ended on 30 June 1952. But that was not to be the end of his association with the Arab refugee problem. On Friday 29 August 1952 Galloway published a piece in the conservative Daily Telegraph and Morning Post entitled 'What Can be Done About the Arab Refugees?'[48] He was characteristically direct:

The Arab Governments dislike UNRWA and mistrust it. They know, of course, that without the relief programme there would soon be chaos among the refugees. There is some criticism of relief, which is understandable, and much criticism of the slow pace of resettlement. The Jordanian population fear the settlement of large numbers of refugees in their country. But they are aware that it means the spending of large sums of money in Jordan. They want the cash. They want to spend it on schemes for the development of Jordan. If the refugees benefit from this arrangement, so much the better."[48]

Galloway continued in critical vein covering not only Arab states but also the UNRWA itself as well as the refugees.[44] He concluded:

There is a need of a change of heart and a better atmosphere. There is need to distinguish between a tempting political manoeuvre and the hard, unpalatable fact that the refugees cannot in the foreseeable future return to their homes in Palestine. To get this acceptance is a matter of politics: it is beyond the function of UNRWA. Second, a determined effort should be made to get the 'host' countries to take over relief from the Agency, thus freeing it to get on with the much more important task of resettlement.[48]

In 1954 Galloway assumed a position as a public relations director and manager for the Costain engineering and construction firm and retired in 1964. He and his wife moved to Scotland in 1965 and he died in 1977.[44]

Personal

Galloway married Dorothy Haddon White in 1920, with whom he had three sons.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h "Personal Papers of Lieutenant-General Sir Alexander Galloway". Archivesearch. Retrieved 2 January 2010.
  2. ^ "No. 35120". The London Gazette (Supplement). 30 December 1941. p. 1870.
  3. ^ "No. 35821". The London Gazette (Supplement). 11 December 1942. p. 5437.
  4. ^ "No. 35519". The London Gazette (Supplement). 7 April 1942. p. 1595.
  5. ^ "No. 37909". The London Gazette (Supplement). 18 March 1947. p. 1315.
  6. ^ "No. 36569". The London Gazette (Supplement). 16 June 1944. p. 2914.
  7. ^ "No. 38122". The London Gazette (Supplement). 11 November 1947. p. 5354.
  8. ^ "No. 28945". The London Gazette. 20 October 1914. p. 8404.
  9. ^ "No. 29679". The London Gazette. 25 July 1916. p. 7345.
  10. ^ "No. 30443". The London Gazette (Supplement). 21 December 1917. p. 13436.
  11. ^ "No. 30203". The London Gazette (Supplement). 24 July 1917. p. 7612.
  12. ^ "No. 31092". The London Gazette (Supplement). 1 January 1919. p. 25.
  13. ^ "No. 33349". The London Gazette. 20 January 1928. p. 441.
  14. ^ "No. 33669". The London Gazette. 12 December 1930. p. 7999.
  15. ^ a b c Mead, p. 157.
  16. ^ "No. 33802". The London Gazette. 26 February 1932. p. 1295.
  17. ^ "No. 34373". The London Gazette. 19 February 1937. p. 1175.
  18. ^ "No. 34535". The London Gazette. 26 July 1938. p. 4813.
  19. ^ a b Ammentorp
  20. ^ "No. 34004". The London Gazette. 12 December 1933. p. 8051.
  21. ^ "No. 34120". The London Gazette. 1 January 1935. p. 19.
  22. ^ "No. 34536". The London Gazette. 29 July 1938. p. 4880.
  23. ^ "No. 35021". The London Gazette (Supplement). 20 December 1940. p. 7203.
  24. ^ Orders of Battle.com
  25. ^ "No. 35209". The London Gazette (Supplement). 4 July 1941. p. 3881.
  26. ^ Mead, p. 158.
  27. ^ Mead, pp. 158–159.
  28. ^ "No. 35381". The London Gazette (Supplement). 12 December 1941. p. 7093.
  29. ^ "No. 35396". The London Gazette (Supplement). 30 December 1941. p. 7333.
  30. ^ "No. 35396". The London Gazette (Supplement). 26 December 1941. p. 7340.
  31. ^ a b Mead, p.159.
  32. ^ "No. 35836". The London Gazette (Supplement). 25 December 1942. p. 5625.
  33. ^ "No. 36270". The London Gazette (Supplement). 30 November 1943. p. 5277.
  34. ^ Mead, pp. 159–160.
  35. ^ a b Mead, p. 160.
  36. ^ "No. 37419". The London Gazette (Supplement). 1 January 1946. p. 233.
  37. ^ "No. 37407". The London Gazette (Supplement). 28 December 1945. p. 5.
  38. ^ "No. 38829". The London Gazette (Supplement). 3 February 1950. p. 583.
  39. ^ Mead, p. 161.
  40. ^ "The Allied occupation of Austria". Britain's Small Wars Site. Archived from the original on 23 January 2010. Retrieved 2 January 2010.
  41. ^ "No. 37933". The London Gazette (Supplement). 15 April 1947. p. 1711.
  42. ^ "No. 38628". The London Gazette (Supplement). 3 June 1949. p. 2798.
  43. ^ "No. 38842". The London Gazette (Supplement). 17 February 1950. p. 848.
  44. ^
    S2CID 147251065
    .
  45. ^ a b c Alexander H. Joffe and Asaf Romirowsky. (September 2010). "A Tale of Two Galloways Notes on the Early History of UNRWA and Zionist Historiography". romirowsky.com. Middle Eastern Studies. Retrieved 27 January 2015.
  46. ^ Statement by Baehe to the Committee on Foreign Relations, Palestine Refugee Program, Hearings before the Subcommittee on the Near East and Africa of the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate, Eighty-Third Congress, First Session on the Palestine Refugee Program, May 20, 21, and 25, 1953 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1953), p.103.
  47. ^ Palestine Refugee Program: Hearings Before the Subcommittee on the Near East and Africa of the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate, Eighty-third Congress, First Session ... May 20, 21, and 25, 1953. U.S. Government Printing Office. 1953. p. 103.
  48. ^ a b c Lt. General Sir Alexander Galloway. "What Can be Done about the Arab Refugees?". Daily Telegraph & Morning Post (Friday, 29 August 1952).

Bibliography

External links
Military offices
Preceded by GOC 1st Armoured Division
1943–1944 		Succeeded by
Preceded by GOC 4th Indian Infantry Division
March 1944 		Succeeded by
Preceded by GOC XXX Corps
1945–1946 		Post disbanded
Preceded by GOC Malaya Command
1946–1947 		Succeeded by
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