Sir James Edward Alexander, a British soldier and writer, born in Scotland in 1803. He is descended from the Stirling family, studied at Sandhurst, served in the Burman war (1825), in the Russian service against Turkey (1829), in Dom Pedro's cause in Portugal (1834), in quelling the disturbances in Canada (1839), in the Crimean war, after the close of which he became colonel (1858), and in the Maori war in New Zealand (1803). He has published " Travels from India to England" (London, 1827); "Expedition of Discovery into the Interior of Africa" (1838), undertaken while stationed at Cape Town; " Passages in the Life of a Soldier" (1857); and "Incidents of the late Maori War" (1803).