Colin Callander


Sir Colin Bishop Callander KCB KBE MC was a senior British Army officer who went on to be Military Secretary.

Military career

Educated at Ilminster Grammar School, Callander was commissioned into the Royal Munster Fusiliers in 1915 during the First World War. He transferred to the Leicestershire Regiment in 1922 and went to the North West Frontier in India in 1938.
He served during the Second World War becoming General Officer Commanding 54th Infantry Division in May 1943 and GOC 76th Infantry Division in December 1943, before being assigned GOC 4th Division in Greece in December 1944. In 1945 he took the unconditional surrender at Knossos of German Forces serving in Crete under General Benthag.
He became GOC 2nd Division in the British Army of the Rhine in 1949 and Director General of Military Training at the War Office in 1948. He was appointed Military Secretary in 1954 and retired in 1957. From 1954 to 1963 he was Colonel of the Royal Leicestershire Regiment.