Admiral Frederick Augustus Maxse (13 April 1833 – 25 June 1900) was a British

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

officer and radical liberal campaigner.

Early life

Maxse was born in London, the son of James Maxse and Lady Caroline FitzHardinge, daughter of Frederick Augustus, 5th Earl of Berkeley. His elder brother was Sir

Henry Berkeley Fitzhardinge Maxse Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Henry Berkeley Fitzhardinge Maxse (1832, Effingham Hill, England – 10 September 1883, St. John's, Newfoundland) was a Newfoundland colonial leader and a captain during the Crimean War. Maxse was commissioned lieut ...

Career

Maxse was naval aide-de-camp to

Lord Raglan Baron Raglan, of Raglan in the County of Monmouth, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created on 20 October 1852 for the military commander Lord FitzRoy Somerset, chiefly remembered as commander of the British troops d ...

after the

Battle of the Alma The Battle of the Alma (short for Battle of the Alma River) was a battle in the Crimean War between an allied expeditionary force (made up of French, British, and Ottoman forces) and Russian forces defending the Crimean Peninsula on 20Septemb ...

on 20 September 1854 in the

Crimean War The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia. Geopolitical causes of the war included the de ...

. He was an atheist and

vegetarian Vegetarianism is the practice of abstaining from the consumption of meat (red meat, poultry, seafood, insects, and the flesh of any other animal). It may also include abstaining from eating all by-products of animal slaughter. Vegetarianism m ...

. Maxse retired from the

in 1867, but failed in his attempts to get elected to Parliament in 1868 and 1874. Maxse was active in various causes including the

Charity Organisation Society The Charity Organisation Societies were founded in England in 1869 following the ' Goschen Minute' that sought to severely restrict outdoor relief distributed by the Poor Law Guardians. In the early 1870s a handful of local societies were formed w ...

John Stuart Mill John Stuart Mill (20 May 1806 – 7 May 1873) was an English philosopher, political economist, Member of Parliament (MP) and civil servant. One of the most influential thinkers in the history of classical liberalism, he contributed widely to ...

's Land Tenure Reform Association, the

National Education League The National Education League was a political movement in England and Wales which promoted elementary education for all children, free from religious control. The National Education League, founded 1869, developed from the Birmingham Education Lea ...

and the Eastern Question Association, founded to campaign against the atrocities of the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

during the Bulgarian

April Uprising The April Uprising ( bg, Априлско въстание, Aprilsko vastanie) was an insurrection organised by the Bulgarians in the Ottoman Empire from April to May 1876. The regular Ottoman Army and irregular bashi-bazouk units brutally su ...

of 1876. He also founded the

Electoral Reform Association An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has operated ...

which campaigned for the equalisation of parliamentary constituencies. He died in London.

Works

Maxse was a friend of

Joseph Chamberlain Joseph Chamberlain (8 July 1836 – 2 July 1914) was a British statesman who was first a radical Liberal, then a Liberal Unionist after opposing home rule for Ireland, and eventually served as a leading imperialist in coalition with the Cons ...

, and his 1873 pamphlet ''The Causes of Social Revolt'' became the basis of Chamberlain's radical programme of 1885.

Family

Maxse married Cecilia Steel, a society beauty, and daughter of Colonel James Steel. They had two sons and two daughters before separating around 1877: *Gen. Sir

Ivor Maxse General Sir Frederick Ivor Maxse, (22 December 1862 – 28 January 1958) was a senior British Army officer who fought during the First World War, best known for his innovative and effective training methods. Early life Ivor Maxse was the eldest ...

(1862–1958), British Army officer of the First World War *

Leopold Maxse Leopold "Leo" James Maxse (11 November 1864 – 22 January 1932) was an English amateur tennis player and journalist and editor of the conservative British publication, ''National Review'', between August 1893 and his death in January 1932; he ...

(1864–1932), editor *Olive Hermione Maxse (1867–1955), died unmarried; was a model for

Edward Burne-Jones Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, 1st Baronet, (; 28 August, 183317 June, 1898) was a British painter and designer associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood which included Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Millais, Ford Madox Brown and Holman Hun ...

* Violet Georgina (1872–1958), editor; married, firstly,

Lord Edward Cecil Lord Edward Herbert Gascoyne-Cecil (12 July 1867 – 13 December 1918), known as Lord Edward Cecil, was a distinguished and highly decorated English soldier. As colonial administrator in Egypt and advisor to the Liberal government, he helped t ...

and secondly,

Alfred Milner, 1st Viscount Milner Alfred Milner, 1st Viscount Milner, (23 March 1854 – 13 May 1925) was a British statesman and colonial administrator who played a role in the formulation of British foreign and domestic policy between the mid-1890s and early 1920s. From D ...

References

Sources

* 1833 births 1900 deaths Royal Navy admirals

Frederick Frederick may refer to: People * Frederick (given name), the name Nobility Anhalt-Harzgerode *Frederick, Prince of Anhalt-Harzgerode (1613–1670) Austria * Frederick I, Duke of Austria (Babenberg), Duke of Austria from 1195 to 1198 * Frederi ...

Royal Navy personnel of the Crimean War English political writers Military personnel from London {{UK-bio-stub