Colin Callander

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Sir Colin Callander
Mentioned in Despatches[3]

KBE, MC (13 March 1897 – 31 May 1979) was a senior British Army officer who served as Military Secretary
from 1954 to 1957.

Military career

Born in Ilminster, Somerset, on 13 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 at Sandhurst, and, after passing out from there, was commissioned into the Royal Munster Fusiliers in June 1915.[5][6] He served with his regiment on the Western Front, gaining the Military Cross (MC) in September 1916, and being wounded three times during the war.[3]
The citation for his MC reads:

For conspicuous gallantry. When a torpedo failed to cut the enemy's wire completely, he went with two men to cut it with wire-cutters. When both men had been wounded, he carried on for fifteen minutes and completed the work.[7]

Remaining in the army during the

mentioned in despatches.[3]

Callander served during the

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

Callander became Director General of Military Training at the War Office in London in 1948, and was appointed GOC 2nd Division in the British Army of the Rhine (BAOR) in 1949.[6][3][9] He was appointed Military Secretary in 1954 and retired in 1957.[6] He was Colonel of the Royal Leicestershire Regiment from April 1954 to May 1963.[12][9] He retired to Kent, where he spent his final years until his death in May 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. ^ a b c d e f g 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. ^ a b c d e f "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. ^ a b c d "Biography of Lieutenant-General Colin Bishop Callander (1897–1979), Great Britain". generals.dk.
  10. ^ "No. 36031". The London Gazette (Supplement). 25 May 1943. p. 2374.
  11. 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

External links
Military offices
Preceded by GOC 54th (East Anglian) Infantry Division
May–December 1943 		Succeeded by
Preceded by GOC 76th Infantry Division
1943–1944 		Succeeded by
Preceded by GOC 4th Infantry Division
1945–1946 		Succeeded by
Preceded by GOC 2nd Division
1949–1951 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Military Secretary
1954–1957 		Succeeded by
Honorary titles
Preceded by Colonel of the Royal Leicestershire Regiment
1954–1963 		Succeeded by
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