Sir Henry James Alderson (22 May 1834 – 10 September 1909) was a Canadian-British major-general in the

Royal Artillery The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery (RA) and colloquially known as "The Gunners", is one of two regiments that make up the artillery arm of the British Army. The Royal Regiment of Artillery comprises t ...

Life

Born in

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

, Canada, on 22 May 1834, he was son of Lt.-Col. Ralph Carr Alderson of the

Royal Engineers The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually called the Royal Engineers (RE), and commonly known as the ''Sappers'', is a corps of the British Army. It provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces and is heade ...

, by his wife Maria, daughter of Henry Thorold of Cuxwold,

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-west, Leicestershire ...

; John Alderson the physician was his grandfather. Educated privately at Messrs. Stoton & Mayer's school at

Wimbledon Wimbledon most often refers to: * Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London * Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships Wimbledon may also refer to: Places London * ...

(1844–8), he entered the

Royal Military Academy, Woolwich The Royal Military Academy (RMA) at Woolwich, in south-east London, was a British Army military academy for the training of commissioned officers of the Royal Artillery and Royal Engineers. It later also trained officers of the Royal Corps of Sig ...

, as a cadet, in May 1848. Alderson received a commission as second lieutenant in the Royal Artillery on 23 June 1852, and served in Canada until 1854, when, on promotion to the rank of lieutenant, he returned to England. Serving through the

Crimean War The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia. Geopolitical causes of the war included the de ...

, he was present at the

battle of Alma The Battle of the Alma (short for Battle of the Alma River) was a battle in the Crimean War between an allied expeditionary force (made up of French, British, and Ottoman forces) and Russian forces defending the Crimean Peninsula on 20Septemb ...

battle of Inkerman The Battle of Inkerman was fought during the Crimean War on 5 November 1854 between the allied armies of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Britain and Second French Empire, France against the Imperial Russian Empire, Russian Army. Th ...

, and at the

siege of Sebastopol A siege is a military blockade of a city, or fortress, with the intent of conquering by attrition warfare, attrition, or a well-prepared assault. This derives from la, sedere, lit=to sit. Siege warfare is a form of constant, low-intensity con ...

. He was mentioned in despatches, and received the medal with three clasps, the Turkish medal, and the ''

legion d'honneur The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon B ...

'', third class. Promoted to the rank of second captain on 1 April 1859, Alderson from February to June 1864 was attached on special mission during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

to the headquarters of the Federal Army under General Quincy Adams Gillmore during the civil war in the United States of America, and was present at the bombardment of Charleston. On his return to England Alderson joined the experimental department of the school of gunnery,

Shoeburyness Shoeburyness (; also called Shoebury) is a suburb of the city of Southend-on-Sea, in the City of Southend-on-Sea, in the ceremonial county of Essex, England. east of the city centre. It was an urban district of Essex from 1894 to 1933, when it ...

, and became successively captain on 6 July 1867; major 3 July 1872; lieutenant-colonel 1 October 1877; colonel (by brevet) 1 October 1881, and major-general 9 July 1892. From 1871 Alderson held appointments in the department of the director of artillery at the

War Office The War Office was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the new Ministry of Defence (MoD). This article contains text from ...

, and in 1891 became president of the ordnance committee. He held this post until his retirement from the army on 22 May 1896, on account of age. From 1897 until his death he was a director of Sir W G Armstrong Whitworth & Co, the gunmaking firm at Elswick, Newcastle upon Tyne. Alderson was made C.B. on 21 June 1887; a K.C.B. on 30 May 1891; and was appointed colonel commandant in the Royal Artillery on 4 November 1905. He died at

Durham Durham most commonly refers to: *Durham, England, a cathedral city and the county town of County Durham *County Durham, an English county *Durham County, North Carolina, a county in North Carolina, United States *Durham, North Carolina, a city in No ...

on 10 September 1909.

Family

Alderson married in 1877 his second cousin, Florence, youngest daughter of Sir Edward Hall Alderson, baron of the exchequer, and had one son, Ralph Edward.

References

Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Alderson, Henry James 1834 births 1909 deaths Royal Artillery officers British Army major generals Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath British people of French-Canadian descent Pre-Confederation Canadian emigrants to the United Kingdom British expatriates in the United States