Ioannis Demestichas participant of 1906 Intercalated Games
Life
Early career: Macedonian Struggle, the Balkan Wars and aftermath
Ioannis Demestichas was born in Athens on 30 November 1882. He entered the Hellenic Navy Academy on 1 September 1896, and graduated on 28 July 1900 as a Line Ensign. On 6 May 1905 he was promoted to Sub-Lieutenant. He participated in the 1906 Intercalated Games in the 400-metre course. He participated in the Macedonian Struggle in 1906–07 under the nom de guerre of Kapetan Nikiforos, leading an armed band in the Giannitsa Lake area.In August 1909 he participated in the successful Goudi coup, and later was among the ringleaders in the abortive coup of the more radical young officers, led by Lieutenant Konstantinos Typaldos-Alfonsatos, in October of the same year. Promoted to Lieutenant on 29 March 1910, he spent the years 1910–12 in training abroad. With the outbreak of the First Balkan War in October 1912, he was given command of a gunboat, with which he participated in the operations in the Ambracian Gulf, but in early November he was detached to the Aegean fleet as commander of a landing detachment, with which he fought in the battles for the capture of the islands of the eastern Aegean. He was wounded during the liberation of Chios, and was later appointed military governor of Tenedos. On 1 January 1913 he was promoted to Lieutenant I Class.After the Balkan Wars, he served as captain of the torpedo boat Aigli (1914–15), being promoted to Lt. Commander on 20 October 1914. He then became captain of the destroyer Aspis (1915–17), as well as instructor of naval calculus in the Naval Academy (1916–17). On 9 May 1917, he left his post to join the Provisional Government of National Defence under Eleftherios Venizelos. Following Venizelos' return to Athens and his assumption of the government in June, Demestichas was made captain of the destroyers Niki  (1917–18) and Nea Genea (1918–19), with which he participated in the anti-U-boat operations in the eastern Mediterranean. On 26 December 1917, he was promoted to commander.