George Allan Elderson was born in Egremont, Wallasey, Cheshire, England on 22 May 1891. The son of a Scottish father and an English mother, his parents were William Elderson and Hannah Williams. His father died when he was a small child. 

Elderson first appears on crew records when he was a deck boy aboard Ivernia. He later began working as a waiter aboard other ships. 

In April 1912 he was serving as a waiter aboard the eastward-bound voyage of the Carpathia when that ship rescued the survivors of the Titanic. 

Following the Titanic disaster Elderson continued to work at sea; he later migrated to Australia before settling for a short time in Vancouver. He emigrated to the USA in 1919 and became a US citizen in 1925. He was married three times before his untimely death in Los Angeles on 24 August 1934. He is buried in Inglewood Cemetery.