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Alexander Myles Jardine was born in Vancouver in 1914 and moved to Victoria with his family at an early age. He attended South Park School, working in the summer of 1928 at the Natural Bridge Tea House near Field, B.C., and in September of 1929 with a forest survey crew in the vicinity of Powell River. He worked for a short period in the office of the B.C. Electric Co. in Victoria in the fall of 1929, before joining Canadian Pacific Steamship as an ordinary seaman on the Empress of Canada. In 1932 he joined Donaldson Lines as a cadet and in 1935 received his Second Mate certificate after study in Glasgow. In 1935 he joined the Royal Air Force and served in Britain until 1937 when he was posted to Singapore. He was taken prisoner of war in 1942. In 1946, he transferred to the Royal Canadian Air Force. His RCAF career is outlined in the curriculum vita in box 1, folder 1. He was Head of the Department of Military Studies, Royal Military College, Commanding Officer, RCAF stations Rockcliffe, St. Hubert, and Penhold, Alberta and from 1960-1963, Canadian Air and Military Attache at the Canadian Embassy Prague, Czechoslovakia. He retired from the air force in 1965. The collection consists of diaries, letters to his family (these are mainly letters to his mother), certificates, correspondence inward, mainly on the occasion of his promotions and retirement, and clippings. The diaries and letters particularly present detailed account of his work at Natural Bridge, near Field, B.C.; his brief stint as an office worker in Victoria, his years with the Merchant Marine, and with the RAF and the RCAF.

The fonds consists of diaries, letters and manuscripts, documenting Alexander Jardine's career, including with the Empress of Canada, Donaldson Lines, the Royal Air Force, the Royal Canadian Air Force, and the Royal Military College (Kingston).