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

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

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 (1 January 1832 – 10 September 1883) was a British Army officer of the Crimean War and colonial official who was Governor of Newfoundland. Biography Maxse was the son of James Max ...

Career

Maxse was naval aide-de-camp to Lord Raglan after the

Battle of the Alma The Battle of the Alma (short for Battle of the Alma River) took place during the Crimean War between an allied expeditionary force (made up of French, British, and Ottoman forces) and Russian forces defending the Crimean Peninsula on 20Sept ...

on 20 September 1854 in the

Crimean War The Crimean War was fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the Ottoman Empire, the Second French Empire, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the Kingdom of Sardinia (1720–1861), Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont fro ...

. He was an atheist and

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

. 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 along the lines of the Elberfeld system. In the early 1870s, ...

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

Land Tenure Reform Association The Land Tenure Reform Association (LTRA) was a British pressure group for land reform, founded by John Stuart Mill in 1868. The Association opposed primogeniture, and sought legal changes on entails. Its programme fell short of the nationalisation ...

, 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. It was founded in 1869 and dissolved in 1877. It developed from the Birmingham Education ...

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

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

during the Bulgarian

April Uprising The April Uprising () was an insurrection organised by the Bulgarians in the Ottoman Empire from April to May 1876. The rebellion was suppressed by irregular Ottoman bashi-bazouk units that engaged in indiscriminate slaughter of both rebels ...

of 1876. He also founded the

Electoral Reform Association An election is a formal group decision-making process whereby 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 s ...

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 Party (UK), Liberal, then a Liberal Unionist after opposing home rule for Ireland, and eventually was a leading New Imperialism, imperial ...

, 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 (United Kingdom), General Sir Frederick Ivor Maxse, (22 December 1862 – 28 January 1958) was a senior British Army Officer (armed forces), officer who fought during the World War I, First World War, best known for his innovative and ef ...

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

Leopold Maxse Leopold 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 was s ...

(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 an English painter and designer associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood's style and subject matter. Burne-Jones worked with William Morris as a founding part ...

* Violet Georgina (1872–1958), editor; married, firstly, Lord Edward Cecil 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 very important role in the formulation of British foreign and domestic policy between the mid-1890s and earl ...

References

Sources

* 1833 births 1900 deaths Royal Navy admirals

Frederick Frederick may refer to: People * Frederick (given name), the name Given name Nobility = Anhalt-Harzgerode = * Frederick, Prince of Anhalt-Harzgerode (1613–1670) = Austria = * Frederick I, Duke of Austria (Babenberg), Duke of Austria fro ...

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