Major general

Sir Frederick Maurice

KCB
In The Sketch, 8 August 1900
Birth nameJohn Frederick Maurice
Born(1841-05-24)24 May 1841
London, England
Died12 January 1912(1912-01-12) (aged 70)
Camberley, England
Service/branchBritish Army
Years of service1861–1912
RankMajor general
Battles/wars
Spouse(s)
Annie FitzGerald
​
(m. 1869)​
Childrenat least 11 (including Frederick Barton Maurice)
Relations
Other work

Major-General Sir John Frederick Maurice KCB (24 May 1841 – 12 January 1912) was a senior British Army officer, chiefly remembered for his military writings.[1]

Family and early life

Maurice was born in Southwark, London in 1841, the eldest son of Rev. Frederick Denison Maurice, an Anglican priest, theologian and author,[2] by his first wife, Anna Eleanor Barton, a daughter of Lieutenant-General Charles Barton.[3][4] He published several volumes on his father's life in 1884.[2]

Maurice was educated at the Royal India Military College, Addiscombe, and the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, and was commissioned into the Royal Artillery in 1861.[1]

Career

Maurice served as private secretary to Sir Garnet Wolseley in the Ashanti Campaign of 1873–1874; in the Zulu War in 1880; was deputy assistant adjutant general of the Egyptian expedition in 1882; and was brevetted colonel in 1885. In 1885–1892 he was professor of military history at the Staff College, Camberley, and in 1895 was promoted to major general. Later in his career he was commander of the Woolwich District until September 1902,[5] and he retired from the army in January 1903.[6]

In 1905, Maurice was part of a team which went to Berlin to negotiate with the Germans on the problems of the Navy estimates and the escalating threat posed to the Empire. In January 1906, news was leaked to The Times that implicated him in the leaking of war material purchases, which he had discussed.[7] Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, the prime minister, complained to Sir Edward Grey, the Foreign Secretary, of "an outrageous interview with Genl. Sir F. Maurice in a French paper, describing all that wd. happen if Germany & France went to war; how we of course should join France".[8]

Later in the same parliament British government policy evolved around Grey's adherence to the Entente Cordiale and the British willingness to defend the neutrality of the Low Countries.[9][10]

Personal life

In Dublin in 1869, Maurice married Anne Frances "Annie" FitzGerald, the daughter of Richard Augustine FitzGerald. They had a large family of at least 11 children. His eldest son was Sir Frederick Maurice (1871–1951).[1] His second daughter Annie married John Macmillan, Bishop of Guildford. Another daughter, Cosette, married the Oxford military historian, C. T. Atkinson.

Writings

Maurice's reputation depends chiefly on his military writings, which include:

  • Hostilities without Declaration of War (1883)
  • Popular History of Ashanti Campaign (1874)
  • A life of his father, John Frederick Denison Maurice (1884)
  • The Balance of Military Power in Europe (1888)
  • War (1891)
  • National Defences (1897)
  • The Franco-German War, 1870–1871 (1900)
  • Diary of Sir John Moore (1904)
  • History of the War in South Africa, an official account (four volumes, 1906–1910)

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Obituary: Major-General Sir Frederick Maurice". The Times. London. 13 January 1912. p. 11. Retrieved 12 November 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. 1 2 "Frederick Denison Maurice". The Times. London. 12 April 1884. p. 4. Retrieved 12 November 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. ↑ Thomas Carlyle, Charles Richard Sanders, Clyde de L. Ryals, The Collected Letters of Thomas and Jane Welsh Carlyle (1981), p. 45
  4. ↑ Bond, Brian (2006) [2004]. "Maurice, Sir John Frederick (1841–1912)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/34949. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  5. ↑ "Naval & Military Intelligence". The Times. No. 36868. London. 9 September 1902. p. 8. Retrieved 12 November 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. ↑ "No. 27515". The London Gazette. 13 January 1903. p. 237.
  7. ↑ Owen, David (15 September 2014). "Sir Edward Grey letter to Lascelles, F.O. 371/76 (no. 53), dated 31 January 1906". The Hidden Perspective: The Military Conversations 1906–1914. Haus Publishing. ISBN 9781908323675. Retrieved 12 November 2023 – via Google Books.
  8. ↑ Campbell-Bannerman letter to Grey, 26 January 1906, quoted in Wilson, John (1973). CB: A Life of Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman. London: Constable. p. 529. ISBN 009458950X. Retrieved 12 November 2023 – via Internet Archive.
  9. ↑ Wilson, John (1973). CB: A Life of Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman. London: Constable. pp. 528–529. ISBN 009458950X. Retrieved 12 November 2023 – via Internet Archive.
  10. ↑ Owen, David (15 September 2014). The Hidden Perspective: The Military Conversations 1906–1914. Haus Publishing. p. 86. ISBN 9781908323675.
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