Allegiance United Kingdom Died December 25, 1986 Years of service 1916–1954 Service/branch British Army | Rank Lieutenant-general Name Alexander Cameron | |
Battles/wars World War I
World War II
Mau Mau Uprising Awards Order of the British Empire, Order of the Bath, Military Cross Battles and wars World War I, World War II, Mau Mau Uprising | ||
Commands held East Africa Command | ||
Lieutenant General Sir Alexander Maurice Cameron (30 May 1898 – 25 December 1986) was a senior British Army officer who became General Officer Commanding (GOC) East Africa Command.
Military career
Cameron was commissioned into the Royal Engineers in 1916. He served in World War I in France and Belgium taking part in the Battle of Passchendaele for which he received the Military Cross.
After the War he attended the Staff College, Camberley from 1928 to 1929, alongside fellow students such as John Harding, Gerald Templer, Richard McCreery, Gordon MacMillan, Gerard Bucknall and Alexander Galloway, Cameron was deployed to South Persia and then took part in operations in Kurdistan. He became a brigade major in India in 1934 and then a General Staff Officer in the Anti-Aircraft Corps in 1936.
He served in World War II initially as a General Staff Officer with Anti-Aircraft Command and then as Commander of the Anti-Aircraft Brigade from 1942. He was on the staff of Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Force from 1944 to 1945. At this time he started constructing an Allied version of the V-2 rocket.
After the War he became Commander of the Special Project Operations Group which took control of the German guided missile installations. He then became Deputy Quartermaster General for the Royal Engineers in 1945 and Major-General in charge of Administration for Middle East Land Forces in Egypt in 1948.
He was appointed General Officer Commanding East Africa Command in 1951 and, following the Mau Mau Uprising in 1952, was replaced by General Sir George Erskine, becoming Erskine's Second in Command in 1953; he retired in 1954.
He was Director of Civil Defence for South East Region in the UK from 1955 to 1960.