Viscount Alexander first went to Castlederg as a boy, and had a life-long link to the Co Tyrone town

Following an excellent article by Gordon Lucy on Field Marshall Viscount Alexander, the connection between Castlederg and the earl is perhaps not so well known (May 25).
By Letters
Published 6th Jun 2020, 01:53 BST
Updated 6th Jun 2020, 21:33 BST
Letter to the editorLetter to the editor
Letter to the editor

(The article can be read here: ‘Ulsterman Harold Alexander was loved by his troops — and was a favourite of Winston Churchill’)

His full title is Baron Rideau of Ottawa and Earl Alexander of Tunis.

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The Ottawa connection is because after World War II he was appointed Governor-General of Canada and Tunis because of his contribution to the battlefields of North Africa.

The viscount often spent time at the family shooting retreat, Derg Lodge some 15 miles west of Castlederg and on their way the party always stopped in the town to buy provisions for the shooting parties.

As a boy Alexander first went to Castlederg, with his father the fourth Earl of Caledon, who drove a brake drawn by four horses with outriders.

In 1915 suffering from war wounds he was sent home but after a few weeks the War Office allowed him back to the battlefields of France and Italy.

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After the war and in 1952 he acceded to the request of Castlederg Rural District Council in having a new housing development named ‘Alexander Park,’ and the name of ‘Castlederg in the County of Tyrone’ be added to his titles.

James A. Emery BEM, Castlederg

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