General Alexander was a decorated army officer, traveller and author who is best known for bringing Cleopatra's Needle to London. His 50-year career was one of extraordinary variety and accomplishment that spanned five continents - he saw active service with the 14th Foot in Burma, South Africa, the Crimea and New Zealand.
He was present during the Persian army’s final major war with imperial Russia - he would later suffer imprisonment by on suspicion of espionage - and documented the slave societies of the West Indies on the eve of emancipation. His exploration of the interior of southern Africa (now Namibia) was rewarded with a knighthood. He spent over 10 years in Canada during which time he was detached to the Royal Engineers whilst they surveyed the forests of Quebec and New Brunswick for a military road; he was also aide-de-camp to two successive commanders-in-chief.
Alexander’s books, manuscripts, artefacts, and sketchbooks reflect a career that combined military service, exploration, authorship, and keen ethnographic observation. They offer a rare first-hand view of the 19th-century world in motion through the life of a cultivated traveller whose curiosity never waned. He wrote a biography of the Duke of Wellington and a translation of the Persian language memoir of an 18th-century Indian ambassador as well as lively narratives of his travels.
His sketchbooks provide an astounding visual record of the people and places he encountered and are a rich pictorial chronicle of military and civilian life in the 19th century. Of major ethnographic importance, they contain extensive depictions of the Māori and striking watercolours of the Indigenous peoples of Canada; his extremely detailed Canadian albums preserve views of settlement and cities now long changed including Quebec, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, ‘Canada West’ (i.e. Ontario) and New York.
General Alexander lived to become a grandee of the Victorian military establishment, and his accomplishments were variously recognised through honours, the Deputy Lieutenancy of Stirlingshire, and a fellowship of the Royal Geographical Society.
Illustrated: Richard James Lane, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
