Alexander William Pearson (30 November 1853 – 27 January 1930)[1] was a rugby union international who represented England from 1875 to 1878.

[4] Alexander's father, James, had been born on 12 June 1799 in Furris,[dubious – discuss] Kincardine, Scotland, himself the son of Peter Patrick and Elizabeth (née Pride) Pearson.

Having worked in a Liverpool shipping office James ran away to sea, voyaging to China and India and by the age of 29 was the Captain of the 'Lady of the Lake", chartered by the British Government in March 1829 to deliver a consignment of female prisoners to Hobart, Van Diemens Land.

The following April, Alec's older half brother Jamie was born, but died of dysentery before reaching 6 months of age.

Having lost his entire family, James resumed his voyaging and at the end of 1842, undertook a Leasing Arrangement in Melbourne in the Parish of Kalkallo, on the crest of Kinlochewe Hill.

Immediately, the couple began preparations to sail to Port Phillip District, along with Augusta's 18-year-old cousin Frederick Race Godfrey (1826–1910).

[6] Alec Pearson played rugby for Guy's hospital from 1873 to 1877, his first match being in the 1873/1874 season against the Clapham Rovers.

[2] His contemporary, Lennard Stokes, in 1925 described Alec Pearson as "about as fíne a full back as ever played, beautiful drop and place kick and dead sure tackle".

Mount Ridley was sold out of the family and out of the Pearson name in 1885, and would almost a century later by revived for the purposes of the film industry as a set.