Douglas Winston Aldred was born in Southport, Lancashire, England on 6 December 1909. It is not known where or with whom he trained as an architect. By the early 1930s, he had qualified and in 1932 he was elected an Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects (ARIBA). During the mid-1930s he was briefly in partnership with Gordon Stephenson (1908-1997) as Gordon Stephenson & D. W. Aldred (Stephenson & Aldred). Semi-detached houses on Moor Lane in Crosby, Liverpool designed by Stephenson & Crosby in 1936 are discussed in The Modern House in England by F.R.S. Yorke (London: The Architectural Press, 1937 pp. 42-43).
By 1938 Aldred was working as an architect in the Department of Scientific Building Research Station in Watford, Hertfordshire. He was also a lecturer in Building Subjects.
Aldred was awarded a RIBA Distinction and a RIBA Diploma in Town Panning. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects (FRIBA) in 1943. He was also elected a Fellow of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (FRICS), and a Member of the Town Planning Institute (MTPI).
1 Castle Street, Southport, Lancashire in 1911; 1 Marlborough Road. Southport, Lancashire in 1936; 36 The Crescent, St. Albans, Hertfordshire in 1939; and 48 Monkhams Lane, Woodford Green, Essex in 1950. He died on 10 January 1987. His address at the time of his death was 32 Woodcote Road, London.
A biographical file on Douglas Winston Aldred is available on request from the Enquiry Desk, Royal Institute of British Architects Library, London.