Educated at Prince Alfred College and the University of Adelaide, Alexander Melrose was admitted to the bar and practised as a solicitor from 1890.
Described as a 'lively writer whose literary heroes were Thomas Carlyle, George Bernard Shaw and G. K. Chesterton' (ADB), Melrose published racy and sometimes satirical verse in Adelaide newspapers, and later, as 'Bill O'C', in the Bulletin. He also wrote plays as Alex Somerville, including 'A Woman Unknown', 'The Prince Peter's Half-Mile', 'The Usual Three' and ' The Adventure of an Adventuress'.
Well-known as a patron of the Arts, he was commissioned in 1929 to report on literature and the fine arts in North America, Europe and Britain, and in doing this he wrote a number of poems about his travels. In 1936 he composed the centenary tribute To the Pioneers , which was sold to raise funds for the Pioneers' Association of South Australia.
