Kenneth J. Alford was actually Frederick J. Ricketts (1881-1945), a British composer and bandmaster. Trained at Kneller Hall, he went at to become the Director of Music for the Royal Marines at Plymouth. In the intervening years, he wrote dozens of marches and other works that made their way into the standard repertoire of military bands. He wrote many of these works under the Alford pseudonym, perhaps due to British military rules that discouraged officers from assuming other professional obligations. See more about him at his Wikipedia article.

Ricketts is best remember for the 1913 march Colonel Bogey. The name comes from golf, in which a bogey is one stroke over par. Frederick Fennell tells the rest of this story in the program notes for his 1982 edition of the march:

Colonel Bogey was composed in 1913 at Fort George and published just in time to be around when the world unfortunately found itself in a very big war. But its inspiration came – not from the glory of British legions of any age or conflict but rather from a casual incident on a golf course near Fort George where Fred J. Ricketts…was Bandmaster for the 2nd Battalion Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. Golf had not yet become one of his recreations; but, he was strolling across the course day, his mind and ear probably lost in a favorite piece of organ muisc, and he failed to respond to a golfer’s shouts of the traditional…”Fore!” With its critical significance lost on him, the impatient player tried to get his attention by resorting to the loud whistling of two clearly distinct tones.

The Bandmaster now not only heard the frustrated golfer, he also had found the basic idea – a simple idea – for a march which one day would be heard everywhere. As for the title, it’s not too difficult to speculate Mr. Rickett’s overhearing one golfer’s conversation with another at the Officers’ Club: “I say, how did Colonel Bogey treat you today?”

The melody, particularly of the first strain, has become famous in many other forms. Among them are an irreverant, off-color song about Hitler (adult content warning), and this childhood standard (don’t try this at home):

It also shows up in movies, often whistled, including in a camp scene in The Parent Trap (1961) and this scene from 1985’s The Breakfast Club:

It was also used as a theme for 1957’s The Bridge on the River Kwai, with material added by the film’s composer, Malcolm Arnold:

See more about the march at the Wind Repertory Project, IMSLP, Altissimo Recordings, Music and Vision, and Wikipedia.