Alexander Papagos (9 December 1883 – 4 October 1955) was Prime Minister of Greece from 19 November 1952 to 4 October 1955, succeeding Dimitrios Kiosoupolos and preceding Constantine Karamanlis.
Biography[]
Alexander Papagos was born on 9 December 1883 in Athens, Greece, the son of Major-General Leonidas Papagos. He attended a military academy in Belgium before serving in the Greek Army during the Balkan Wars, and he became a Lieutenant-Colonel in 1920. During the political crises of the 1930s, he supported the Greek monarchy, and he also supported Ioannis Metaxas' fascist government. During the Greco-Italian War, he was commander-in-chief of the Greek army, and he defeated the Royal Italian Army in Albania. However, he refused to withdraw back into Greece when the German invasion neared in 1941, leading to the Germans overwhelming the Allied forces in Greece. In July 1943, he was arrested by Nazi Germany while he was living in occupied Greece, and he was held in the Dachau concentration camp until 5 May 1945. In 1949, he became the only Greek general to hold the title of Field Marshal, and he helped in putting down communist uprisings during the Greek Civil War. From 1952 to 1955, he served as Prime Minister of Greece, and he died of gastric issues on 4 October 1955.