Frederick Barton Maurice
Encyclopedia
Major-General Sir Frederick Barton Maurice, 1st Baronet GCB
GCMG
GCVO
DSO
(19 January 1871-19 May 1951) was a British
general
, military correspondent
, writer
and academic. He was famously forced to resign his commission in May 1918 after writing a letter to The Times
criticizing Prime Minister
David Lloyd George
for making misleading statements about the strength of British forces in France. He also founded the British Legion
in 1920, and served as its president from 1932 to 1947.
, a British Army
officer and military historian. He attended St. Paul's School and Sandhurst
before joining the Derbyshire Regiment in 1892. His first overseas posting was to India
in 1897-98 during the Tirah Campaign
. During this time, he served as aide-de-camp
to his father, Major-General John Frederick Maurice
. After a promotion to captain
in 1899, he fought in the Second Boer War
. After returning from South Africa, he entered the Staff College
in 1902. Later that year, he was posted to the War Office
and, in 1911, promoted to major
. Two years later, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel
in 1913 and transferred to the Staff College
as an instructor.
and assigned to 3rd Infantry Division as a staff officer. He saw action at the Battle of Mons
in August 1914. In early 1915, following the appointment of William Robertson as Chief of the Imperial General Staff, Maurice was posted to London as Director of Military Operations for the Imperial General Staff, and in 1916 he was promoted to major general
.
in order to undermine the position of Douglas Haig
. When David Lloyd George
announced in the House of Commons
that British troop levels on the Western Front were at all-time highs, Maurice believed that he was deceiving both Parliament
and the British public. In his capacity as Director of Military Operations, Maurice knew that the troop statistics available to his office did not bear out Lloyd George's claims, and he wrote to Robertson's successor, Henry Wilson
, to outline his position. After Wilson failed to respond, Maurice wrote a letter to The Times
, criticizing Lloyd George for misleading the public about the state of the British Expeditionary Force during the German Spring Offensive
. The publication of this letter on 7 May caused a minor political storm, and members of the Liberal
opposition, including former Prime Minister H. H. Asquith
, called for a debate. This subsequently occurred on 9 May, and Lloyd George was able to imply that the source of confusion was, in fact, Maurice's office, rather than the Prime Minister's. Maurice was initially suspended, and ultimately forced to retire; he was also denied a court martial.
, and later for the Daily News. In 1921, he was one of the founders of the British Legion
, and although he was not initially very active in the organization, he would later serve as the president from 1932 to 1947. The following year, he was appointed principal of the Working Men's College
in London, a position he held until 1933, when he left to take a similar post at East London College
. He was also appointed as a professor of military studies at the University of London
in 1926, and taught both there and at Trinity College
until the end of his life.
Maurice died on 19 May 1951, in Cambridge
well cared for by his daughter, the economist Joan Robinson
.
Sir Frederick Maurice: a record of his work and opinions (Edward Arnold, London, 1913)
Forty Days in 1914 (Constable and Co, London, 1919)
The Last Four Months (Cassell and Co, London, 1919)
The Life of Lord Wolseley (William Heinemann, London, 1924)
Robert E. Lee, the soldier (Constable and Co, London, 1925)
Governments and War (William Heinemann, London, 1926)
An aide-de-camp of Lee (Little, Brown and Co, London, 1927)
The Life of General Lord Rawlinson of Trent (Cassell and Co, London, 1928)
British Strategy (Constable and Co, London, 1929)
The 16th Foot (Constable and Co, London, 1931)
The History of the Scots Guards (Chatto and Windus, London, 1934)
Haldane (Faber and Faber, London, 1937, 1939)
The Armistices of 1918 (Oxford University Press, London, 1943)
The Adventures of Edward Wogan (G Routledge and Sons, London, 1945)
Order of the Bath
The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate mediæval ceremony for creating a knight, which involved bathing as one of its elements. The knights so created were known as Knights of the Bath...
GCMG
Order of St Michael and St George
The Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George is an order of chivalry founded on 28 April 1818 by George, Prince Regent, later George IV of the United Kingdom, while he was acting as Prince Regent for his father, George III....
GCVO
Royal Victorian Order
The Royal Victorian Order is a dynastic order of knighthood and a house order of chivalry recognising distinguished personal service to the order's Sovereign, the reigning monarch of the Commonwealth realms, any members of her family, or any of her viceroys...
DSO
Distinguished Service Order
The Distinguished Service Order is a military decoration of the United Kingdom, and formerly of other parts of the British Commonwealth and Empire, awarded for meritorious or distinguished service by officers of the armed forces during wartime, typically in actual combat.Instituted on 6 September...
(19 January 1871-19 May 1951) was a British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
general
General
A general officer is an officer of high military rank, usually in the army, and in some nations, the air force. The term is widely used by many nations of the world, and when a country uses a different term, there is an equivalent title given....
, military correspondent
Correspondent
A correspondent or on-the-scene reporter is a journalist or commentator, or more general speaking, an agent who contributes reports to a newspaper, or radio or television news, or another type of company, from a remote, often distant, location. A foreign correspondent is stationed in a foreign...
, writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
and academic. He was famously forced to resign his commission in May 1918 after writing a letter to The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
criticizing Prime Minister
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the Head of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister and Cabinet are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Sovereign, to Parliament, to their political party and...
David Lloyd George
David Lloyd George
David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor OM, PC was a British Liberal politician and statesman...
for making misleading statements about the strength of British forces in France. He also founded the British Legion
The Royal British Legion
The Royal British Legion , sometimes referred to as simply The Legion, is the United Kingdom's leading charity providing financial, social and emotional support to those who have served or who are currently serving in the British Armed Forces, and their dependants.-History:The British Legion was...
in 1920, and served as its president from 1932 to 1947.
Early life and military career
Maurice was born in Dublin, the son of John Frederick MauriceJohn Frederick Maurice
Major-General Sir John Frederick Maurice was an English soldier, born in London. He studied at Addiscombe College and Woolwich Academy and entered the Royal Artillery in 1861...
, a British Army
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
officer and military historian. He attended St. Paul's School and Sandhurst
Royal Military Academy Sandhurst
The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst , commonly known simply as Sandhurst, is a British Army officer initial training centre located in Sandhurst, Berkshire, England...
before joining the Derbyshire Regiment in 1892. His first overseas posting was to India
British Raj
British Raj was the British rule in the Indian subcontinent between 1858 and 1947; The term can also refer to the period of dominion...
in 1897-98 during the Tirah Campaign
Tirah Campaign
The Tirah Campaign, often referred to in contemporary British accounts as the Tirah Expedition, was an Indian frontier war in 1897–98. Tirah is a mountainous tract of country.-Rebellion:...
. During this time, he served as aide-de-camp
Aide-de-camp
An aide-de-camp is a personal assistant, secretary, or adjutant to a person of high rank, usually a senior military officer or a head of state...
to his father, Major-General John Frederick Maurice
John Frederick Maurice
Major-General Sir John Frederick Maurice was an English soldier, born in London. He studied at Addiscombe College and Woolwich Academy and entered the Royal Artillery in 1861...
. After a promotion to captain
Captain (British Army and Royal Marines)
Captain is a junior officer rank of the British Army and Royal Marines. It ranks above Lieutenant and below Major and has a NATO ranking code of OF-2. The rank is equivalent to a Lieutenant in the Royal Navy and to a Flight Lieutenant in the Royal Air Force...
in 1899, he fought in the Second Boer War
Second Boer War
The Second Boer War was fought from 11 October 1899 until 31 May 1902 between the British Empire and the Afrikaans-speaking Dutch settlers of two independent Boer republics, the South African Republic and the Orange Free State...
. After returning from South Africa, he entered the Staff College
Staff College, Camberley
Staff College, Camberley, Surrey, was a staff college for the British Army from 1802 to 1997, with periods of closure during major wars. In 1997 it was merged into the new Joint Services Command and Staff College.-Origins:...
in 1902. Later that year, he was posted to the War Office
War Office
The War Office was a department of the British Government, responsible for the administration of the British Army between the 17th century and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the Ministry of Defence...
and, in 1911, promoted to major
Major
Major is a rank of commissioned officer, with corresponding ranks existing in almost every military in the world.When used unhyphenated, in conjunction with no other indicator of rank, the term refers to the rank just senior to that of an Army captain and just below the rank of lieutenant colonel. ...
. Two years later, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel
Lieutenant colonel
Lieutenant colonel is a rank of commissioned officer in the armies and most marine forces and some air forces of the world, typically ranking above a major and below a colonel. The rank of lieutenant colonel is often shortened to simply "colonel" in conversation and in unofficial correspondence...
in 1913 and transferred to the Staff College
Staff College, Camberley
Staff College, Camberley, Surrey, was a staff college for the British Army from 1802 to 1997, with periods of closure during major wars. In 1997 it was merged into the new Joint Services Command and Staff College.-Origins:...
as an instructor.
World War I
On the outbreak of war in 1914, Maurice was posted to FranceFrance
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
and assigned to 3rd Infantry Division as a staff officer. He saw action at the Battle of Mons
Battle of Mons
The Battle of Mons was the first major action of the British Expeditionary Force in the First World War. It was a subsidiary action of the Battle of the Frontiers, in which the Allies clashed with Germany on the French borders. At Mons, the British army attempted to hold the line of the...
in August 1914. In early 1915, following the appointment of William Robertson as Chief of the Imperial General Staff, Maurice was posted to London as Director of Military Operations for the Imperial General Staff, and in 1916 he was promoted to major general
Major General
Major general or major-general is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. A major general is a high-ranking officer, normally subordinate to the rank of lieutenant general and senior to the ranks of brigadier and brigadier general...
.
Resignation
Following the dismissal of William Robertson in February 1918, Maurice became convinced that troops were being withheld from the Western FrontWestern Front (World War I)
Following the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the German Army opened the Western Front by first invading Luxembourg and Belgium, then gaining military control of important industrial regions in France. The tide of the advance was dramatically turned with the Battle of the Marne...
in order to undermine the position of Douglas Haig
Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig
Field Marshal Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig, KT, GCB, OM, GCVO, KCIE, ADC, was a British senior officer during World War I. He commanded the British Expeditionary Force from 1915 to the end of the War...
. When David Lloyd George
David Lloyd George
David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor OM, PC was a British Liberal politician and statesman...
announced in the House of Commons
British House of Commons
The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 650 members , who are known as Members...
that British troop levels on the Western Front were at all-time highs, Maurice believed that he was deceiving both Parliament
Parliament of the United Kingdom
The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom, British Crown dependencies and British overseas territories, located in London...
and the British public. In his capacity as Director of Military Operations, Maurice knew that the troop statistics available to his office did not bear out Lloyd George's claims, and he wrote to Robertson's successor, Henry Wilson
Henry Wilson
Henry Wilson was the 18th Vice President of the United States and a Senator from Massachusetts...
, to outline his position. After Wilson failed to respond, Maurice wrote a letter to The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
, criticizing Lloyd George for misleading the public about the state of the British Expeditionary Force during the German Spring Offensive
Spring Offensive
The 1918 Spring Offensive or Kaiserschlacht , also known as the Ludendorff Offensive, was a series of German attacks along the Western Front during World War I, beginning on 21 March 1918, which marked the deepest advances by either side since 1914...
. The publication of this letter on 7 May caused a minor political storm, and members of the Liberal
Liberal Party (UK)
The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...
opposition, including former Prime Minister H. H. Asquith
H. H. Asquith
Herbert Henry Asquith, 1st Earl of Oxford and Asquith, KG, PC, KC served as the Liberal Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1908 to 1916...
, called for a debate. This subsequently occurred on 9 May, and Lloyd George was able to imply that the source of confusion was, in fact, Maurice's office, rather than the Prime Minister's. Maurice was initially suspended, and ultimately forced to retire; he was also denied a court martial.
Postwar life
Following his forced resignation, Maurice served as a military correspondent, initially for the Daily ChronicleDaily Chronicle
The Daily Chronicle was a British newspaper that was published from 1872 to 1930 when it merged with the Daily News to become the News Chronicle.-History:...
, and later for the Daily News. In 1921, he was one of the founders of the British Legion
The Royal British Legion
The Royal British Legion , sometimes referred to as simply The Legion, is the United Kingdom's leading charity providing financial, social and emotional support to those who have served or who are currently serving in the British Armed Forces, and their dependants.-History:The British Legion was...
, and although he was not initially very active in the organization, he would later serve as the president from 1932 to 1947. The following year, he was appointed principal of the Working Men's College
Working Men's College
The Working Men's College- WMC, being among the earliest adult education institutions established in the United Kingdom, is Europe's oldest extant centre for adult education and perhaps one of its smallest...
in London, a position he held until 1933, when he left to take a similar post at East London College
Queen Mary, University of London
Queen Mary, University of London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and a constituent college of the federal University of London...
. He was also appointed as a professor of military studies at the University of London
University of London
-20th century:Shortly after 6 Burlington Gardens was vacated, the University went through a period of rapid expansion. Bedford College, Royal Holloway and the London School of Economics all joined in 1900, Regent's Park College, which had affiliated in 1841 became an official divinity school of the...
in 1926, and taught both there and at Trinity College
Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Trinity has more members than any other college in Cambridge or Oxford, with around 700 undergraduates, 430 graduates, and over 170 Fellows...
until the end of his life.
Maurice died on 19 May 1951, in Cambridge
Cambridge
The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...
well cared for by his daughter, the economist Joan Robinson
Joan Robinson
Joan Violet Robinson FBA was a post-Keynesian economist who was well known for her knowledge of monetary economics and wide-ranging contributions to economic theory...
.
Publications
The Russo-Turkish War, 1877-1878 (Special Campaign Series, 1905)Sir Frederick Maurice: a record of his work and opinions (Edward Arnold, London, 1913)
Forty Days in 1914 (Constable and Co, London, 1919)
The Last Four Months (Cassell and Co, London, 1919)
The Life of Lord Wolseley (William Heinemann, London, 1924)
Robert E. Lee, the soldier (Constable and Co, London, 1925)
Governments and War (William Heinemann, London, 1926)
An aide-de-camp of Lee (Little, Brown and Co, London, 1927)
The Life of General Lord Rawlinson of Trent (Cassell and Co, London, 1928)
British Strategy (Constable and Co, London, 1929)
The 16th Foot (Constable and Co, London, 1931)
The History of the Scots Guards (Chatto and Windus, London, 1934)
Haldane (Faber and Faber, London, 1937, 1939)
The Armistices of 1918 (Oxford University Press, London, 1943)
The Adventures of Edward Wogan (G Routledge and Sons, London, 1945)