 He was born at his family's home in Carlton House Terrace, London, and educated at Harrow and Christ Church, Oxford.He succeeded to the title Earl of Caledon at the age of nine upon the death of his father in 1855.In 1861, during his minority, an extensive but remote property at Castlederg, County Tyrone, known as the Derg Estate, was purchased through the Landed Estates Court by his guardians from a kinsman of the Alexanders, Sir Robert Ferguson.