Georgios Stavros

Georgios Stavros
Drawing of Georgios Stavros
Native name	Γεώργιος Σταύρος
Born	1788 Ioannina, Ottoman Empire (modern Greece)
Died	1869 Athens, Greece
Nationality	Greek
Education	Balanaia, Kaplaneios, Vienna Commercial School
Occupation	Businessman
Known for	Banker Benefactor Revolutionary

Georgios Stavros (Greek: Γεώργιος Σταύρος, 1788–1869) was a Greek banker, benefactor and revolutionary. He was one of the founders and the first governor of the National Bank of Greece.

Stavros was born in Ioannina, Epirus, a major intellectual center of the Greek world then under Ottoman rule. He studied in renowned schools of his home town, such as the Balaneios and then the Kaplaneios, under Athanasios Psalidas. Stavros, later moved to Vienna in order to take over the commercial business of his father, while studying at the local business school.

Because of his profession he had to travel in various European cities. In Saint Petersburg, he met Ioannis Kapodistrias, that time a diplomat in the service of the Russian Empire, that would play a key role in the Greek politics the following years. Stavros soon became a member of the patriotic organization Filiki Eteria.

Shortly after the outbreak of the Greek War of Independence (1821) he supported the uprising by supplying the revolutionaries with firearms, ammunition and food. In 1824 Stavros moved to Greece and the next year he was appointed Chief Cashier of the Executive body of the First Hellenic Republic, under Georgios Kountouriotis. Apart from his financial duties, he joined the armed struggle against the Ottoman Empire by leading an infantry group against Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt. He held the rank of Chiliarchos and was in charge of 50 men in central Greece, in order to support the defenders of Missolonghi during its Third Siege. Stavros participated in the Third National Assembly at Troezen (1827) as representative of the regions of Epirus and Central Greece, as well as in the Fifth National Assembly at Nafplion (1831), as representative of Epirus.