Frederick Maurice

Sir Frederick Barton Maurice GCB GCMG GCVO DSO (born January 19, 1871 in Dublin , † May 19, 1951 in Cambridge ) was a British general in the First World War as well as a military science lecturer and writer.

Live and act

Early years

The son of Major General John Frederick Maurice, like his father, opted for a military career. His grandfather, Frederick Denison Maurice, was a Christian Socialist and the founder of the Working Men's College . Frederick Maurice graduated from St. Paul's School and the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and joined the Derbyshire Regiment in 1892 .

Military career

Frederick Maurice served on his father's staff between 1897 and 1898. In the Boer War he was praised and made a major at the age of 29. After his return home he was a member of Douglas Haig's staff in the War Office .

In 1913 Frederick Maurice, like his father before, became a teacher at Staff College in Camberley, where he made friends with William Robertson .

At the beginning of the First World War Maurice took part in the Battle of Mons , but was appointed to leading positions in his environment by William Robertson, when he rose to Chief of the Imperial General Staff in 1915. In 1916 Maurice was appointed major general, and in January 1918 he received the accolade .

Political action and resignation

Two months later, Maurice's military career came to an end. On April 9, 1918, Prime Minister David Lloyd George informed the House of Commons that, despite heavy losses in 1917, the British Army in France was stronger than at the beginning of that year. Lloyd George also gave detailed figures on the strength of the British troops in the Middle East. Frederick Maurice, whose job it was to keep the relevant statistics, knew that Lloyd Gorges' statements were incorrect and that this was misleading Parliament and the public. Maurice believed that Lloyd George deliberately thinned out the Western Front in order to undermine Douglas Haig's position. William Robertson had already been replaced by Henry Wilson and Maurice feared that Haig would be the next to be deposed.

Maurice wrote a letter to Wilson referring to Lloyd George's inaccurate figures, but received no reply. Then Maurice made the decision to publish the correct numbers. He knew that would be the end of his military career. In a letter to his daughter Nancy, Maurice justified himself by saying that he was acting as a "righteous man" in the spirit of the Christian mission. ( I am persuaded that I am doing what is right, and once that is so, nothing else matters to a man. That is I believe Christ meant when he told us to forsake father and mother and children for his sake. )

Maurice's letter was published in the leading British newspapers on May 7, 1918 and became a sensation. Maurice was immediately suspended from duty. A vote of confidence on the prime minister was held in parliament on May 9th. Although many members of the House considered Maurice's allegations to be true, the majority did not want to lose the dynamic leader figure Lloyd George at a critical phase of the war. The prime minister won the vote with a clear majority.

Maurice was forced to resign from the army because of his disobedience. He was denied the court martial he sought, in which he could have justified himself.

As a result, Maurice became a military correspondent for the Daily Chronicle , whose editor-in-chief Robert Donald had previously been a close friend of Lloyd George. Lloyd George had the newspaper bought in October 1918 by a group of his friends led by Henry Dalziel. Robert Donald and Frederick Maurice had to leave the paper. In the following years Maurice worked as a military correspondent for The Daily News (UK) .

On the concept of the "stab in the back legend"

An article by Maurice of November 12, 1918 supposedly served as the basis for the article in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung of December 17, 1918, which is the starting point for the designation of the " stab in the back legend " represented by Hindenburg , Ludendorff and the German right in the interwar period . Maurice, however, always protested against even having used the phrase "stabbed in the back".

Writings on the First World War

Maurice wrote several books on World War I in the years that followed, including Intrigues of the War (1922), Governments and War (1926), British Strategy (1929) and The Armistices of 1918 (1943).

Later activity

In continuation of the social tradition of his grandfather Frederick Denison Maurice , Maurice served as director of the Working Men's College (1922-1933) and the East London College (1933-44). In 1926 he was appointed Professor of Military Studies at London University . Highly-regarded speakers also taught for many years at the Trinity College of Cambridge University .

Maurice was one of the co-founders and from 1932 to 1948 president of the veterans charity organization The Royal British Legion .

Maurice was the father of the well-known Cambridge economist Joan Robinson .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Intrigues of the War. Startling revelations hidden until 1922. Important military secrets now disclosed. Loxley, London 1922 (First appeared in a series of articles in the Westminster Gazette , June 1922, ISSN  0307-7519 ).
2. ^ Governments and War. A Study of the Conduct of War. Heinemann, London 1926.
3. ^ British Strategy. A Study of the Application of the Principles of War. Constable, London 1929.
4. ^ The Armistices of 1918. Oxford University Press, London et al. 1943.

Web links

• Detailed CV (English)