Edwin Alderson

Who was Edwin Alderson?

Lieutenant General Sir Edwin Alfred Hervey Alderson, KCB 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.