Alexander Mason

Alexander Macomb Mason (1841–1897), also known as Mason Bey, had briefly been an officer in the United States Navy before serving in the Confederate States Navy during the American Civil War. In 1870 he joined the army of the Khedivate of Egypt and became governor of Massawa prior to the Italian occupation of that town in 1885. He was the Egyptian signatory to the 1884 Hewett Treaty which would eventually lead to the First Italo-Ethiopian War and the famous Battle of Adowa. In addition to training Egyptian troops, he served as a surveyor and well-digger before entering the civil service.

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