Overall: 28.5cm (11.2in) x 23cm (9in)
Black and white photograph of the Commander-in-Chief Middle East, in battledress autograph signed lower left in blue ink ‘Alexander of Tunis / North Africa 1943’. Image size: 19.3cm x 14cm. Framed and glazed.
Field Marshal Harold Rupert Leofric George Alexander, 1st Earl Alexander of Tunis KG, GCB, OM, GCMG, CSI, DSO, KStJ, MC, CD, PC (Can), PC (1891-1969), Harrow, Sandhurst and Irish Guards, rose to prominence through his service in the First World War, commanding the 2nd Battalion on the Western Front in 1917 and by assuming command of the 4th Guards Brigade, during the British retreat from the German Army's Spring Offensive. In 1920 he led the Baltic German Landeswehr in the Latvian War of Independence, commanding units loyal to Latvia in the successful drive to eject the Bolsheviks from Latgalia. Alexander returned to Britain in May 1920 as a major, second in command of the 1st Battalion, Irish Guards. He commanded the 1st Bn Irish Guards at Constantinople in 1922. In the Second World War, Alexander, initially in command of a division, oversaw the final stages of the Allied evacuation from Dunkirk and subsequently held field commands in Britain, Burma, North Africa and Italy, including serving as Commander-in-Chief Middle East and commanding the 18th Army Group in Tunisia. He then commanded the 15th Army Group for the capture of Sicily and again in Italy before being promoted to field marshal and being made Supreme Allied Commander Mediterranean in late 1944. He served as Governor General of Canada and became the first Lord Lieutenant of Greater London in 1965.