Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Alderson, Henry James
ALDERSON, HENRY JAMES (1834–1909), major-general, born at Quebec, Canada, on 22 May 1834, was son of Lieut.-colonel Ralph Carr Alderson, royal engineers, by his wife Maria, daughter of Henry Thorold of Cuxwold, Lincolnshire. John Alderson (1757–1829) [q. v.] physician, of Sculcoates, Yorkshire, was his grandfather. Educated privately at Messrs. Stoton & Mayer's school at Wimbledon (1844–8), he entered the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, as a cadet, in May 1848. He 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, he was present at the battles of the Alma, Inkerman, and at the siege and fall of Sebastopol. He was mentioned in despatches, and received the medal with three clasps, the Turkish medal, and the legion d'honneur, third class. He was promoted to the rank of second captain on 1 April 1859 and from Feb. to June 1864 was attached on special mission to the headquarters of the federal army under General O. A. Gillmor 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, and became successively captain on 6 July 1867; major 3 July 1872; lieut.-colonel 1 Oct. 1877; colonel (by brevet) 1 Oct. 1881, and major-general 9 July 1892.
From 1871 he held various appointments in the department of the director of artillery at the war office, and in 1891 became president of the ordnance committee. This important office he held 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-on-Tyne.
He 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 Nov. 1905. He died at Durham on 10 Sept. 1909. He married in 1877 his second cousin, Florence, youngest daughter of Sir Edward Hall Alderson (1787–1857) [q. v.], baron of the exchequer, and had one son, Ralph Edward.
[The Times, 11 Sept. 1909; R. A. Institution Leaflet, October 1909.]