Ioannis Metaxas (1871-1941)

Ioannis Metaxas (1871-1941) was a Greek politician and military officer active from the end of the 19th century up to World War II. He was born in Vathi, Ithaca and participated in the Greco-Turkish War of 1897 and the Balkan Wars of 1912-1913. He played an important role during the period of the National Schism between 1914 and 1917, came to a direct fall-out with Eleftherios Venizelos over Greece's entry into World War I and was exiled by the French to Corsica in 1917. On his return to Greece in 1920, he rejoined the Greek army with the rank of major general, but refused to participate in the Asia Minor Campaign, believing that the Greek army was unprepared for such an undertaking. In the 1920s and 1930s he continued to play an active role in the political life of the country, holding ministerial positions.

Between 1936 and 1941 he served as Prime Minister of Greece, a political period known in modern Greek history as the August 4th Regime or Metaxas Regime, due to his dictatorial rule. Although he initially tried to keep Greece neutral after the start of World War II, on 28 October 1940 he refused to surrender the country to the Italians and entered the war on the side of the Allies. Ioannis Metaxas died in January 1941, before the German invasion of Greece. Pictured: Ioannis Metaxas inspecting works at a fort on the Greek-Bulgarian border a few months before the start of World War II. ©Municipal Photography Museum of Kalamaria ‘Christos Kalemkeris’.