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Title

Fonds consists of

3 lower level description(s)

Arrangement structure

Accession

J.L. Malkin collection [graphic material]

Date(s)

1942-1948

Place of creation

England

Extent

Language of material

English

Scope and content

The fonds consists of the despatches of Lord Alexander about his Africain military campaigns, and the Italian campaigns to which he participated as Field Marshal. The files enclose maps, copies of directives, operation orders, etc. The fonds contains also one file from External Affairs relating to Lord Alexander's visit to Brazil as Governor General of Canada in June 1948 and six scrap books of newspaper clippings referring to that visit. He was the first occasion upon which a governor had visited a foreign country other than the United States during his term of office. Photograph is a portrait of Viscount Alexander of Tunis.

Conditions of access

Terms of use

Photograph: No restrictions on use or reproduction. Copyright to be determined. Credit: Name of photographer / National Archives of Canada / Copy negative number.

Finding aid

No finding aid

Creator / Provenance

Alexander, Harold Rupert Leofric George Alexander, 1891-1969. 1st Earl,

Biography / Administrative history

Sir Harold, Viscount Alexander of Tunis was born in 1891 in County Armagh, Ireland, a son of the Earl of Caledon. He was educated at Harrow and Sandhurst. Commissioned in 1910, he commanded a battalion and was wounded in the First World War. Subsequently he served in the Baltic in 1920 and at Constantinople in 1922. Between the two World Wars he held a number of commands in the United Kingdom and India and became a Major General in 1937. In 1939, as a major-general, he commanded the 1st Division in France. The following year, as commander of the 1st Army Corps, he directed the evacuation of Dunkirk and was the last man to leave the beaches. Promoted to Lieutenant General in 1940, he was Commander in Chief of British forces in Burma in 1942 ; of British forces in the Middle East in 1943 ; of the 15th Army Group in Italy between 1943-1944 and Supreme Allied Commander, Mediterranean Theatre from 1944 to 1945. He became a Field Marshal in 1944. Lord Alexander was created Viscount Alexander of Tunis in 1946 and an earldom was conferred in 1952. In September 1945, he was appointed the Canada's last British Governor General. On his return to England in 1952, he became Minister of Defence in the Churchill government until 1954.

Additional information

Subject heading

1. Great Britain. Army - Officers, 1942-1945
2. Rome (Italy), 1944.
3. Governors general - Canada, 1948
4. Anno (Italy), 1944.
5. Command of troops, 1942-1945
6. Gothic Line Battles, 1944.
7. Leadership, 1942-1945, 1948.
8. Alexander of Tunis, Harold Rupert Leofric George Alexander, Earl - Military leadership, 1942-1945.
9. World War II - Campaigns - Italy, 1943-1944.
10. World War II - Campaigns - Italy - Sicily, 1943.
11. Operation Husky, 1943.
12. World War II - Campaigns - Libya, 1942-1943.
13. World War II - Campaigns - Tunisia, 1943.
14. Enfidaville, Battle of, 1943.
15. World War II - Military operations, 1942-1945.
16. World War II - Great Britain, 1942-1945.
17. Alexander of Tunis, Harold Rupert Leofric George Alexander, Earl - Journeys, 1948.
18. Visits of state - Brazil, 1948.
19. Visitors, Foreign - Brazil, 1948.
20. Canada. Embassy (Brazil) - Records and correspondence, 1948.
21. Canada - Diplomatic and consular service - Brazil, 1948.
22. Newspapers - Sections, columns, etc., 1948.
23. Brazilian newspapers, 1948.
24. Maps, Military, 1942-1945.

Source

Private

Other system control no.

MAINS21743

Related control no.

1952-036 NPC

MIKAN no.

103216