VIPs

   Slide 10

Sir Harold Alexander

SIR HAROLD RUPERT LEOFRIC GEORGE ALEXANDER (1891-1969)
was commissioned into the Irish Guards in 1911 and was wounded twice on the Western Front during WWI.

During WWII he oversaw the British retreat at Dunkirk, then serving in Burma. In 1942, Alexander and Bernard Montgomery were sent to North Africa. He was appointed deputy to Dwight Eisenhower and the Supreme Allied Commander of Allied Armies in Italy. He was Eisenhower's preference to command the Normandy landings but Churchill lobbied to keep him in Italy, where the forces under his command captured Rome June 4, 1944. He received the German surrender in Italy on May 2, 1945.

After the war Alexander was Governor General of Canada from 1946-1952.