Aldrich was born in Rhode Island in 1885, the son of U.S. Senator from Rhode Island, Nelson W. Aldrich and the former Abigail Pearce Truman Chapman. He attended Harvard University, receiving a bachelor's degree in 1907 and a J.D. degree in 1910. Among his ten siblings was brother Richard S. Aldrich, who served in Congress from 1923 to 1933, and sisters Lucy Aldrich, an art collector, and Abby Aldrich, who became the wife of John D. Rockefeller, Jr.
Career
During the First World War Aldrich had built, at his own expense, the patrol boat USS Herreshoff No. 309 which was leased by Aldrich to the U.S. Navy and patrolled the waters off of Rhode Island from November 15, 1917 to December 31, 1918 when it was returned to Aldrich. Aldrich had been commissioned a lieutenant in the Naval Reserve and was called to active duty on April 8, 1917 and was assigned to the Naval Training Station in Newport, Rhode Island. He transferred to the in September and was assigned as the ship's navigator. He was reassigned to the in June 1918 and served on convoy duty. He was promoted to lieutenant on June 1 of the same year and, after the armistice, was released from active duty in December.
On February 2, 1953, he was appointed the US Ambassador to the United Kingdom under President Dwight D. Eisenhower. He presented his credentials on February 20, 1953, and remained in London while Winston Churchill was Prime Minister and Queen Elizabeth II was the reigning monarch, until his mission was terminated on February 1, 1957. He belonged to and served on the boards of many charitable organizations.
Personal life
In 1916, Aldrich was married to Harriet Alexander at the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church. Guests at their wedding included "representatives of the Astor, Fish, Harriman, Rockefeller, Crocker, Webb, Rhinelander, Cutting, Vanderbilt, Bacon and other well-known families." Harriet was the eldest daughter of Harriet Alexander and Charles Beatty Alexander of New York City and Tuxedo Park, New York and the granddaughter of railroad executive Charles Crocker. Her younger sisters were Jannetta and Mary Crocker Alexander, who married Sheldon Whitehouse in 1920. Together, they were the parents of:
Mary Aldrich, who married Robert Homans, a lawyer with the San Francisco law firm of Morrison, Holloway, Schuman & Clark.
Harriet Aldrich, who married Dr. Edgar A. Bering Jr.
Lucy Aldrich, who married David W. Devens. They divorced and she remarried to her first cousin, George Davenport Aldrich, in 1971. After his death, she married Francis H. Burr in 1979.
Elizabeth Brewster "Liberty" Aldrich, who married J. Woodward Redmond in 1946.
He was an amateur musician and an artist whose specialty was watercolor seascapes. As a yachtsman he was navigator, under skipper Harold S. Vanderbilt, of the 1930 America's Cup J Class defender Enterprise. He built a 40-room manor on 108 acres in Brookville on Long Island. Aldrich died at his home, 960 Fifth Avenue in New York City, on February 25, 1974.
