Alexander Archer Vandegrift was born on March 13, 1887, in Charlottesville, Virginia, where his father of Dutch descent was an architect and contractor. Vandegrift was of Dutch, English and Swedish ancestry, all of which had been in North America since the 1600s. It was once facetiously remarked that he "never had a Catholic ancestor". Young Vandegrift, known as "Archer" in his boyhood, had an interest in the military—both from reading military history novels and from stories of ancestors who fought in various wars. He graduated from Charlottesville High School. During his childhood was a big fan of G.A. Henty novels and history, in particular he read a lot about the Battle of Trafalgar and the Battle of Waterloo, and he described himself as "big fan" of Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington and Horatio Nelson.