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Alexander Richardson (British Army officer)

British Army officer and bobsledder (1887-1964)

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMay 5, 2026
Entity authorityQ550000 ↗
Source-derived summary

Major-General Alexander Whitmore Colquhoun Richardson, (11 May 1887 – 22 July 1964) was a senior British Army officer during the Second World War and bobsledder who competed at the 1924 Winter Olympics in Chamonix.

Richardson was born at Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire. He served in the First World War in the Bedfordshire Regiment, reaching the rank of major and was awarded the Distinguished Service Order.

Richardson was a member of the four-man bobsled team with Ralph Broome, Thomas Arnold, and Rodney Soher, who won a silver medal in the 1924 Winter Olympics.

From 1930 until his retirement in 1931, Richardson was commanding officer of the 4th Battalion, Royal Tank Corps. He was recalled to service in 1938 and became commanding officer of the 84th Anti-Aircraft Brigade. From 1940 to 1941, he was commanding officer of the 26th Armoured Brigade and then became Director-General Armoured Fighting Vehicles at the War Office. He became Brigadier General Staff of the Second Army in 1942 and, in 1943, was appointed chief of staff of the 18th Army Group in Tunisia and then chief of staff of the 15th Army Group in Italy. He retired in 1945.

Richardson's son Guy Richardson won a silver medal rowing at the 1948 Summer Olympics.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Alexander Richardson (British Army officer)” is british Army officer and bobsledder (1887-1964). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Alexander, Richardson and British, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1887, 1964, 1924, 1930—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1887-05-11. For this dossier, Alexander, Richardson and British is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “british Army officer and bobsledder (1887-1964)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 5, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q550000. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1887, 1964, 1924 and 1930.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Alexander Richardson (British Army officer)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.