Peregrine Palmer Acland (1891–1963), author and military officer, was born in Toronto, Ontario. He attended University College School in London, England, and Upper Canada College in Toronto. After graduating from the University of Toronto in 1913, he worked for a short time for the Prince Rupert Daily News. He was then employed in the Department of Finance in Ottawa.

Acland enlisted at Valcartier, Quebec, in September 1914 as a private in the Queen’s Own Rifles of Canada, but soon transferred to the 48th Highlanders of Canada. He went overseas on the SS Megantic with the First Canadian Contingent, as an officer in the 15th Battalion, attaining the rank of Major in 1916.

Acland was badly wounded in the Battle of the Somme in June 1916 and served as a military instructor for the remainder of the war.

He later entered the advertising business. From 1942 to 1950 he served as press officer to Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King and then returned to advertising. He wrote vividly of his experiences at the Somme in his Great War novel All Else Is Folly: A Tale of War and Passion, which was published in 1929. Praised by authors Ford Madox Ford, Bertrand Russell and Frank Harris, among others, the novel had transatlantic success with editions published by Constable (England), Coward-McCann and Grosset & Dunlap (United States) and McClelland & Stewart (Canada). It was republished in 2014 by Dundurn Press. The Library and Archives Canada collection includes multiple copies of All Else Is Folly, including the copy Acland presented to Mackenzie King. Acland died in Toronto on May 11, 1963.