Alfred Ernest Cross (June 26, 1861 – March 10, 1932) was a Canadian politician, rancher and brewer, known as one of the Big Four who founded the Calgary Stampede in 1912.

[3] In 1899 he married Helen Rothney Macleod (1878-1959), the daughter of North-west Mounted Police Commissioner Colonel James Macleod, who gave Calgary its name.

He returned to Calgary in 1891 holding a diploma that he had been trained as a brewer's apprentice[2] and established the Calgary Brewing and Malting Company, the first brewery in what was then the Northwest Territories.

[2] In 1898, Cross entered politics, and was elected as a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for East Calgary.

[2] In the summer of 1912, Cross, along with Patrick Burns, George Lane, and Archie McLean ("The Big Four") put up the combined amount of $100,000 to finance the first Calgary Stampede held in September 1912[5] Cross died in 1932.