Lieutenant Colonel James Harry Allason, was a British Conservative Party politician, sportsman, and former military planner who worked with Lord Mountbatten and Winston Churchill.
14 Facts About James Allason
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The son of Brigadier General Walter Allason by his wife Katherine Hamilton Poland, daughter of Vice Admiral James Augustus Poland, James Allason was raised primarily by a great-aunt following the death of his mother in 1913 protecting the infant James in a fall down stairs.
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James Allason 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 lieutenant colonel.
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James Allason joined the Royal Artillery in 1932, transferring to the 3rd Carabiniers in 1937.
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James Allason worked with the Supreme Allied Commander, Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten, as joint planning staff officer in South East Asia Command and was wounded while commanding tanks during the Burma campaign.
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James Allason subsequently occupied a similar post as senior military planner at the War Office in London, answering Winston Churchill's queries and providing briefings in the Cabinet War Rooms.
7.
James Allason's last planning task was to advise on the logistics of withdrawing from Palestine.
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James Allason was elected a councillor on Kensington Borough Council in 1956.
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James Allason was Member of Parliament for Hemel Hempstead from 1959 to 1974, when, following boundary changes, he narrowly lost the seat in the October election of that year to Labour's Robin Corbett.
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In government James Allason was acknowledged for his expertise not only on defence but in the arcane but key subject of pensions.
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James Allason continued skiing until his 87th year, and continued to play Contract Bridge and attend the Opera, on which subjects he wrote.
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In 1946, Allason married Nuala, daughter of John A McArevey, of Foxrock, Dublin.
13.
James Allason's wife continued to live at what had been their family home at 15 Cheyne Walk in Chelsea.
14.
James Allason lived at Pump Lane House, Bembridge, Isle of Wight.