John Cottingham Alderson CBE QPM (28 May 1922 – 7 October 2011) was a senior British police officer and expert on police and penal affairs. Alderson was born in Barnsley, West Riding of Yorkshire, and educated at Barnsley Technical College. In 1938 he enlisted in the Highland Light Infantry as a boy soldier and reached the rank of Corporal before transferring to the Army Physical Training Corps in 1941. He served with the APTC in North Africa and Italy and left the Army in 1946 with the rank of Warrant Officer Class II. Alderson married Irené Macmillan Stirling in 1948; they had one son.