Alan James Dorward was born at Melrose on 19 April 1889 and educated at Gala High School, Galashields Academy, the University of Edinburgh (Ferguson scholar in Mental Philosophy, 1910) and Trinity College, Cambridge (Scholar, 1912). He was Assistant to the Professor of Logic, St Andrews University, 1914-15; employed in the War Office (Allies' Commission Section), 1915-17; Lecturer inn Moral Philosophy and History of Philosophy in the Queen's University, Belfast, 1919-26; Lecturer in Moral Science, University of Cambridge, 1926-28; and held the Chair of Philosophy at the University of Liverpool from 1928 until his retirement in 1954. He died on 16 December 1956.

Professor Dorward married Cècile M. G. Smith (born in London in 1911, with Bavarian, Hungarian, Italian and Swedish grandparents) in 1932. Her life and experiences are recounted in Cècile Dorward and Ron Davidson, Anything But Ordinary: The Nine Lives of Cècile (Freemantle Arts Centre Press, North Freemantle, Western Australia, 2000). Mrs Dorward died on 20 August 2001.