Eric Alexander, 5th Earl of Caledon

Who was Eric Alexander, 5th Earl of Caledon?

Eric James Desmond Alexander, 5th Earl of Caledon was a soldier and the eldest son of James Alexander, 4th Earl of Caledon and Lady Elizabeth Graham-Toler.

He was born at his family's home in Carlton House Terrace, London and succeeded to the title of Earl of Caledon on the death of his father in 1898. He went to Eton College from 1899 to 1903 and then to Trinity College, Cambridge. He fought and was wounded in the First World War, served in the Baltic from 1919 to 1921 and gained the rank of Major in the service of the Life Guards.

Giving an interesting insight into the period, Mark Bence-Jones writes: "Her [Lady Caledon, his mother] eldest son Eric, now the Earl of Caledon, was unmarried. He had a lady-love, a marchioness with a husband and children; his mother would not have her at Caledon, so when she came to visit him she stayed at Glaslough, being given the best guest bedroom, the Mauve Room. Unfortunately for the Leslies she injured her leg motoring while she was here and was laid up in the Mauve Room for weeks, with the lovesick Eric walking over for every meal."

Lord Caledon died unmarried on 10 July 1968 aged 82.