Details about Gamal Abdel Nasser

Gamal Abdel Nasser's Biography

He was president of Egypt for nearly fourteen years, 1956-1970 marking a total of three successive terms. Born on the 15th of January 1918 in Cairo, Nasser was the main figure in the revolution of 23 July 1952 that deposed King Farouk and the monarchy paving way for a new system of governance in the history of Egypt. He was a pro-Arabist and anti-colonialist who supported the Arab revolutions in Algeria, Libya, Iraq and Yemen, and was instrumental in the establishment of the Palestine Liberation Organisation in 1964 and the Non-Aligned Movement.

He served as prime minister ten times. His father worked as an agent at the Bacchus Post Office in Alexandria and married Fahima, the daughter of Mohammed Hammad, a well-known coal merchant in Alexandria. No sooner was he eight years old than his mother died on 2 April 1926 while giving birth to her fourth child, ‘Shawki’.

His uncle ‘Khalil’, who works as a Waqf employee in Cairo, had been married for some time, but had no children, and he found in his nephews his missing fatherhood and his constant longing for children; he took them with him to Cairo to live with him where he provided them with care and stability after their mother's death.

When Gamal obtained his high school diploma from the Egyptian Renaissance School in Cairo in 1937, he was eager to study law, but he soon decided to enter the Military College, after spending a few months studying law. He entered the Military College, and the college's students did not exceed 90 students. After graduating from the Military Academy in 1938, he joined the third battalion of rifles, and was transferred to Mangabad in Assiut, where he met Anwar Sadat and Zakaria Mohyeldin.

In 1939, he was transferred to Alexandria, where he met Abdel Hakim Amer, who had graduated in the next batch of the Military Academy, and in 1942 he was transferred to Al-Alamein camp, and was soon transferred to Sudan along with Amer. ىWhen he returned from Sudan, he was appointed as an instructor at the Military Academy and enrolled in the Military Staff College; during his studies he met his colleagues with whom he founded the ‘Free Officers’ Organisation’.

In the summer of 1949, the idea of establishing a secret revolutionary organisation in the army matured, and a founding committee was formed, which initially included only five members, namely: Gamal Abdel Nasser, Kamal al-Din Hussein, Hassan Ibrahim, Khaled Mohi al-Din, and Abdel Moneim Abdel Raouf: Anwar Sadat, Abdel Hakim Amer, Abdel Latif Baghdadi, Zakaria Mohieddine and Gamal Salem. Tharwat Okasha, Ali Sabry and Youssef Youssef: Tharwat Okasha, Ali Sabry and Youssef Mansour Siddiq.

At that time, Gamal Abdel Nasser was appointed an instructor at the Military Staff College, and was awarded the rank of Bekbashi (Lieutenant Colonel), after he obtained the Military Staff Diploma in 1951 following his return from the Palestine War, and he and a group of his comrades were trapped in ‘Fallujah’ for more than four months, and the number of air raids on it during the siege reached 220 raids.

After the 23 July Revolution, Abdel Nasser was the de facto head of the Free Officers' Constituent Committee. A fierce power struggle ensued between him and Mohamed Naguib, which Nasser ended in his favour on 14 November 1954, after he arrested Mohamed Naguib, confined him to his home in a humiliating manner, and unilaterally seized power. He was able to conclude an agreement with Britain to evacuate its forces from Egypt on 19 October 1954, after agreeing to give up the unity of Egypt and Sudan.