Stamatis Merkouris was born in
Athens in 1895, son of
Spyridon Mercouris and younger brother of
George Mercouris. He graduated from the
Hellenic Military Academy as a
second lieutenant of Cavalry, and fought in
World War I in 1917-18 and the
Greco-Turkish War in 1919-22. The Mercouri were an
Arvanite family. He then left the Army and entered politics, taking part in the creation of the
People's Party, Greece's main center-right political force at the time. Merkouris later left the People's Party and joined the
National Radical Party, founded by the former General
Georgios Kondylis. From 1929 until 1932, Stamatis Merkouris served as General Director of the Athens city government, under his father
Spyridon Mercouris, who was then serving his last term as Mayor of Athens. In 1935 he served as Undersecretary to the Prime Minister's Office, during Kondylis's brief premiership. During
World War II, and after the Nazis had occupied Greece, he founded a resistance organization, the
Rizospastiki Organosis (literally "Radical Organization") which, though small in size, helped many Greek officers and soldiers escape to the Middle East, where they joined the Allied war effort. After the liberation of Greece from the Nazis in 1944, Merkouris resumed his political career and became a government Minister, serving as Minister of Public Order (1945 - 1946), and Minister of Public Works (1946). He founded his own party, the
Democratic Progressive Party which was eventually disbanded, and later he ended up collaborating with the Greek
United Democratic Left, serving as a Member of Parliament for them representing Athens, from 1958 until 1961, and from 1963 until his death in 1967. ==Personal life==