Background
António was born on April 11, 1910, at Estremoz, 90 miles east of Lisbon, son of an Inspector-General of Finance, who came from Madeira.
António was born on April 11, 1910, at Estremoz, 90 miles east of Lisbon, son of an Inspector-General of Finance, who came from Madeira.
Taken to Madeira at the age of 7, he began his education there. In 1918 he returned to Lisbon to complete his primary education and went to the Military College in 1920 for his secondary education, which was rounded off from 1928 to 1930 at the Lisbon Polytechnic.
His military career began in 1930 as a cavalry cadet at the Military College from which he graduated in 1933 as second lieutenant and was posted to no. 7 Cavalry Regiment. Promoted lieutenant in December 1937, he went to Spain as a volunteer with the supply columns for 12 months during the Civil War. In September 1939 he was appointed aide-de-camp to General Monteiro de Barros, Commander of the National Republican Guard.
After a squadron commander’s course in 1942 he took command of a squadron of the Second Lancers’ Regiment in March 1944 as captain. From May to December 1945 he was in the Azores, then returned to Lisbon to command the 4th squadron of the cavalry regiment in the National Republican Guard. In February 1955 he left the squadron to be ai-de-decamp to General Botelho, Commander of the National Republican Guard. His fame as a horseman reached its peak in 1955 when he won many championships in Portugal and Spain on his mount, Achilles.
He volunteered for service in Angola in November 1961, nine months after the guerrilla war started and took command of the 345 th Cavalry Group. On his return to Portugal in March 1964 he was an inspector of cavalry until January 1967 when he became Deputy Commander of the National Republican Guard with the rank of brigadier. Appointed to Guinea as Governor General, he arrived at Bissau on May 24, 1968, and he was promoted General on July 4, 1969.
Although a rigid military person he hinted at flexibility by saying his aim is “a Guinea administered fundamentally by its own sons within a Portuguese community”. Without the last four words his objective could be the basis of negotiations but his rigorous policy of military containment and establishment of aldeamentos—housing settlements makes it seem unlikely that there will be any dialogue during his term of office even though it was extended in 1972. To underline his military strength he demanded and got a military budget of £3 million for 1973-4 to control a country of 500,000 people.
Monocled cavalryman in a black beret, who was brought up in the service of the state as son of a Chef du Cabinet to Salazar. A non-drinker and non-smoker with a fetish about fitness, he drives his soldiers and himself hard. A man of immense personal charm, ready to listen to anyone even a revolutionary leader at his regular open-house sessions at the Palace.