Edwin Alderson
| Sir Edwin Alderson | |
|---|---|
Lieutenant General Alderson, c. 1910
|
|
| Born |
8 April 1859 Capel St Mary, England |
| Died | 14 December 1927 (aged 68) Lowestoft, England |
| Allegiance |
 United Kingdom
|
| Service/branch |
 British Army
|
| Years of service | 1878–1920 |
| Rank | Lieutenant General |
| Unit | Royal West Kent Regiment |
| Commands held |
Canadian Corps 1st Canadian Division |
| Battles/wars |
First Boer War |
| Awards |
Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath Mentioned in Despatches Legion of Honour (France) |
First Boer War
Anglo-Egyptian War
Mahdist War
Second Matabele War
Second Boer War
Lieutenant General Sir Edwin Alfred Hervey Alderson, KCB (8 April 1859 – 14 December 1927) was a senior British Army officer who served in several campaigns of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. During the First World War he was placed in command of the Canadian Expeditionary Force during the first half of the war but made enemies amongst the Canadian political and military elite and suffered disastrous casualties during operations in 1915/16 which forced his sidelining and eventual retirement from service.
Despite the opposition he faced, Alderson transformed the ill-trained and poorly prepared Canadian recruits into tough, veteran soldiers and laid the foundations for later victories at Vimy Ridge and in other operations. An accomplished sportsman, Alderson wrote several books and was a keen proponent of hunting and yachting, pastimes he believed to be at risk from developments in motor sports.
Born in 1859 in Capel St Mary, a village in Suffolk, Edwin Alderson was the son of Lieutenant-Colonel Edward Mott Alderson and his wife Catherine Harriett Swainson. He attended Ipswich School from 1873 to 1876. At 17 Edwin gained a commission in the Norfolk Artillery Militia and at 19 transferred to the 1st Foot (later Royal Scots Regiment) on 4 December 1878. He transferred again ten days later, replacing a promoted officer, to his father's regiment, the 97th Foot (soon to become the Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment). Joining the regiment in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Alderson was soon transferred to Gibraltar and later South Africa, where he was detached to the Mounted Infantry Depot at Laing's Nek.
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Wikipedia