diff --git a/src/shogun/lib/memory.h b/src/shogun/lib/memory.h
index b83fefc43cf..73eda8b4fcd 100644
--- a/src/shogun/lib/memory.h
+++ b/src/shogun/lib/memory.h
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@
 #ifndef DOXYGEN_SHOULD_SKIP_THIS
 
 #include <new>
+#include <cstring>
 
 /* wrappers for malloc, free, realloc, calloc */
 
@@ -95,6 +96,13 @@ template <class T> void sg_generic_free(T* ptr)
 {
 	sg_free(ptr);
 }
+
+template <class InputIt, class OutputIt>
+SG_FORCED_INLINE void* memcpy(InputIt dest, OutputIt src, size_t count)
+{
+	return std::memcpy(static_cast<void*>(dest), static_cast<const void*>(src), count);
+}
+
 #endif //TRACE_MEMORY_ALLOCS
 #ifdef TRACE_MEMORY_ALLOCS
 /** @brief memory block */
diff --git a/tests/unit/lib/Memory_unittest.cc b/tests/unit/lib/Memory_unittest.cc
index 6f64f6cb920..93f717bd801 100644
--- a/tests/unit/lib/Memory_unittest.cc
+++ b/tests/unit/lib/Memory_unittest.cc
@@ -1,10 +1,11 @@
 #include <shogun/lib/memory.h>
+#include <shogun/mathematics/Math.h>
+#include <gtest/gtest.h>
+
 namespace shogun { template <class T> class SGMatrix; }
 namespace shogun { template <class T> class SGSparseVector; }
 namespace shogun { template <class T> class SGVector; }
 
-#include <gtest/gtest.h>
-
 using namespace shogun;
 
 TEST(MemoryTest,get_copy)
@@ -54,3 +55,27 @@ TEST(MemoryTest,SGMatrix)
 	EXPECT_NE((SGMatrix<float64_t>*) NULL, m);
 	SG_FREE(m);
 }
+
+template <typename T>
+static void clone(T* dest, T const * const src, size_t size)
+{
+	shogun::memcpy(dest, src, size);
+}
+
+TEST(MemoryTest, memcpy)
+{
+	const index_t size = 10;
+	auto src = SG_CALLOC(float64_t, size);
+	for (index_t i=0; i<size; ++i)
+		src[i]=CMath::randn_double();
+
+	auto dest = SG_CALLOC(float64_t, size);
+
+	clone(dest, src, size*sizeof(float64_t));
+
+	for (index_t i=0; i<size; ++i)
+		EXPECT_NEAR(src[i], dest[i], 1E-15);
+
+	SG_FREE(src);
+	SG_FREE(dest);
+}