[5] Joining the regiment in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Alderson was soon transferred to Gibraltar and later South Africa, where he was detached to the Mounted Infantry Depot at Laing's Nek.

[6] For his service in these campaigns, Alderson was promoted to captain, upon being transferred to the Queen's Own (Royal West Kent Regiment) in June 1886,[7] and was stationed at Aldershot with the European Mounted Infantry Depot.

His experience with mounted infantry made him suitable for this role in fighting the highly mobile horsed Boer Commandos, as they moved in the latter part of the conflict to a strategy of hit and run attacks upon the British Expeditionary Force in South Africa.

Alderson was instrumental in forming British counter-tactics and used his brigade to good effect against the Afrikaners, the troops under his command including two battalions of Canadian Mounted Rifles.

The force was under the overall command of experienced British soldier Edward Hutton, previously General-Officer-Commanding the Canadian Militia, who became a lifelong friend of Alderson's.

[6] The result of Alderson's contribution in these campaigns was to be rewarded with confirmation as a brigadier general, appointment as a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) and to receive the ceremonial post of Aide-de-Camp to Queen Victoria (who died the same year).

By 1901, Alderson's innovations had resulted in several victorious operations, and in July that year he was appointed Inspector General of Mounted infantry in the Natal District.

After the end of the war in June 1902, Alderson stayed in South Africa another couple of months as Inspector General of Mounted Infantry,[13] returning home on the SS Scot in November.

[1] At the outbreak of the First World War in the summer of 1914, Alderson was, on 5 August, placed in charge of the 1st Mounted Division and all troops in the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk.

Alderson however, after reviewing the Canadian formation was concerned about its combat readiness, particularly regarding some of its commissioned officers, who appeared to owe their positions to political connections rather than through professional military qualifications, the degree of training of the troops had received, and the mechanically temperamental Ross rifle, a weapon personally approved by Hughes.

[1] During training on Salisbury Plain, Alderson, promoted to lieutenant general in October,[18] made some headway in toughening the Canadian troops encamped in the wet, autumn weather, and dismissed some commissioned officers, appointed at Hughes' discretion, whom he thought incompetent.

Carson wrote to the Canadian Prime Minister Robert Laird Borden that Alderson "does not treat our men with a firm iron hand covered with the velvet glove which their special temperaments require".

[1] The Canadian Division sailed from England and landed in France in February 1915, and was briefly initiated to trench warfare on the periphery of the Battle of Neuve Chapelle in March 1915, before being attached to the British 2nd Army, under the command of Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien, in the Belgian town of Ypres.

[19] The Algerians broke and fled, suffering over 6000 casualties in a matter of minutes, and the Canadians were consequently forced to defend twice the length of the front line they had vacated.

[1] Turner had his own reasons for wanting Alderson removed from the post of commanding the Canadian Expeditionary Force following the Actions of St Eloi Craters in March–April 1916.

After British troops had taken a large crater near the ruins of the Belgian town of St Eloi, a brigade of Turner's division was ordered to hold the gain against German counter-attacks.

Alderson was not initially aware of the purely nominal nature of his new position, and with it the practical end of his field career, and when he requested a staff car for its duties he was informed that the post did not require one to be issued.

[1] In September 1916 he was withdrawn from the attachment to the Canadian Expeditionary Force and appointed to the War Office post of inspector of infantry,[1] which he retained until April 1920 when he retired from active service at the age of 61 years.