James Allason

Lieutenant Colonel James Harry Allason OBE (6 September 1912 – 16 June 2011) was a British Conservative Party politician, sportsman, and former military planner who worked with Mountbatten and Churchill. At the time of his death, he was the oldest living former member of the House of Commons.

The son of Brigadier General Walter Allason DSO & Bar (1875–1960) by his wife Katherine (née Poland), daughter of a Vice-Admiral, James Allason was raised primarily by a great-aunt following the death of his mother in protecting the infant James in a fall down stairs, and was educated at Haileybury and Imperial Service College and the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. He served as an officer in the British Army for 24 years from 1930 to 1954, including in India, Ceylon and Burma, rising to the rank of Lt-Colonel. He joined the Royal Artillery in 1932 transferring to the 3rd Carabiniers in 1937. A gifted mathematician, he addressed the problem of using magnetic compasses with tanks: the Allason Sun Compass was adopted for use throughout the Asian theatre.

Allason worked with the Supreme Allied Commander, Lord Louis Mountbatten, as joint planning staff officer in South East Asia Command and was wounded while commanding tanks during the Burma campaign. He was later decorated. He subsequently occupied a similar post as senior military planner at the War Office in London, answering Churchill's queries and providing briefings in the Cabinet War Rooms. His last planning task was to advise on the logistics of withdrawing from Palestine. From 1950 to 1954, he served at the War Office in charge of Army discipline.

...
Wikipedia