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Major Ion Melville Calvocoressi MBE MC (12 April 1919 – 7 July 2007) was an officer in the British Army during the Second World War and later a stockbroker in the City of London. He was High Sheriff of Kent in 1978–79.

Calvocoressi was born in Calcutta, the only child of Matthew John Calvocoressi (1873–1939). His father was descended from a Greek family from Chios; two uncles married into the Ralli family. He was a director of the Indian branch of Greek merchant business, Ralli Brothers. His mother, Agnes Hermione Melville, was of Anglo-Scottish ancestry and was the granddaughter of Michael Linning Melville. His parents moved to London in 1922. He was educated at Eton College and read Modern Languages at Magdalen College, Oxford.

After the outbreak of the Second World War, he was commissioned into the Scots Guards in 1940, and was posted to Egypt with the 2nd Battalion in 1941. He won an immediate Military Cross in 1942, while serving as a lieutenant in command of a platoon of six-pounder anti-tank guns. The battalion was defending a ridge at Bir el Rigel in Libya. After days of intense fighting, the battalion was attacked by two armoured columns from the 21st Panzer Division on 13 June 1942. His platoon destroyed five German tanks before it was overrun. Calvocoressi was captured, but escaped the following night. He rejoined his unit the next day after walking 17 miles (27 km) across the desert.

He was wounded in July 1942, rescuing members of the battalion's forward observation post, and became aide-de-camp to the commander of XXX Corps, Lieutenant-General Sir Oliver Leese in 1943. He accompanied Leese in North Africa, and, after Leese took command of the Eighth Army, into Italy, and finally to the Far East, where Leese became commander of Allied Land Forces South East Asia. He received the MBE for his service.

He became a stockbroker after the war, concentrating on private client work. He moved to the town of Westerham in Kent in 1950, near the country home of Winston Churchill at Chartwell. He was instrumental in the erection of a statue of Churchill by Oscar Nemon in the town in 1965. He was High Sheriff of Kent in 1978–79.

After he retired, he was chairman of the appeal for the Guards Museum at Wellington Barracks. He was also a life member of the Marylebone Cricket Club, a Fellow of the Ancient Monuments Society, and a financial adviser to the Royal Society of Musicians.

He was survived by his wife, Katherine Kennedy (the sister of Sir Ludovic Kennedy), whom he married on 29 April 1947. They had three sons and a daughter. One son is art historian Richard Calvocoressi.

His cousin, Peter Calvocoressi, worked in RAF Intelligence at Bletchley Park in the Second World War and was an author.

References

1. "No. 38612". The London Gazette (Supplement). 17 May 1949. p. 2406.
2. ^ "Major Ion Calvocoressi". The Daily Telegraph. 9 August 2007. Retrieved 29 September 2017.
3. "No. 34861". The London Gazette (Supplement). 28 May 1940. p. 3261.
4. "No. 35908". The London Gazette (Supplement). 16 February 1943. p. 863.
5. ^ "Major Ion Calvocoressi". The Times. 9 August 2007. Archived from the original on 30 September 2008. Retrieved 29 September 2017.
6. "No. 46795". The London Gazette (Supplement). 13 January 1976. p. 580.

External links

• "Major Ion Melville Calvocoressi". The Peerage.
• "Ion Melville (Matthieu) Calvocoressi". Les Pages Tambour (in French). 5 May 2007.
• British Army Officers 1939−1945

• 1919 births
• 2007 deaths
• British World War II prisoners of war
• World War II prisoners of war held by Germany
• Alumni of Magdalen College, Oxford
• British people of Greek descent
• Members of the Order of the British Empire
• People educated at Eton College
• Scots Guards officers
• Recipients of the Military Cross
• British Army personnel of World War II
• British stockbrokers
• High sheriffs of Kent
• Military personnel of British India
• British people in colonial India