Career

John Alexander was born in Wooler, Northumberland, son of country physician and surgeon James Alexander (1797–1863). He was educated at the Royal High School, Edinburgh. John Alexander oversaw many famous trials of the Victorian period including the Fenians (who dynamited Clerkenwell Prison and attacked the House of Commons, London Bridge, and the Tower of London among other places), and Johann Most the German anarchist.

Achievements

• His wife, Mary Elizabeth Thwaites (1846–1923) was the eldest daughter of the engineer and founder of the Vulcan Iron Works at Bradford, Robinson Thwaites.