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. From 1915 to 1916 during the First World War he commanded the Canadian Expeditionary Force on the Western Front, during which time it saw heavy fighting.
Lieutenant General Alderson, c. 1910
Photo of Alderson, c. 1915
Canadian Expeditionary Force
The Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) was the expeditionary field force of Canada during the First World War. It was formed following Britain’s declaration of war on the German Empire on 15 August 1914, with an initial strength of one infantry division. The division subsequently fought at Ypres on the Western Front, with a newly raised second division reinforcing the committed units to form the Canadian Corps. The CEF and corps was eventually expanded to four infantry divisions, which were all committed to the fighting in France and Belgium along the Western Front. A fifth division was partially raised in 1917, but was broken up in 1918 and used as reinforcements following heavy casualties.
Men lining up outside a recruitment tent in Toronto in 1914.
Members of the 38th Battalion (Ottawa), CEF marching in the streets of Hamilton, Bermuda, in 1915.
Depiction of the Battle of Kitcheners' Wood, an engagement during the Second Battle of Ypres
Canadian soldiers returning from trenches during the Battle of the Somme