Frederick Maurice, the son of Major-General John Frederick Maurice, was born in Dublin on 19th January 1871. His grandfather was Frederick Denison Maurice, a leading Christian Socialist and the founder of the Working Men's College. Educated at St. Paul's School and Sandhurst, he joined the Derbyshire Regiment in 1892.

While a subaltern Maurice served as aide-de-camp to his father (1897-98). During the Boer War he was mentioned in dispatches and by the age of 29 had risen to the rank of major. On returning to England he held a number of staff appointments including at the War Office under Sir Douglas Haig.

In 1913 he followed in his father's footsteps by becoming an instructor at the Military Staff College. While at Camberley, Maurice developed a close relationship with Sir William Robertson.

Sent to France on the outbreak of the First World War, Maurice took part in the Battle of Mons. When Sir William Robertson became chief of the general staff in January 1915, he put Maurice in charge of the operations section at G.H.Q. Promoted to the rank of major-general, Maurice went with Robertson when he was appointed as chief of the imperial general staff in December 1915. Maurice was given the important post as director of military operations.

Maurice was knighted in January 1918 but two months later made a decision that was to bring his military career to an end. On 9th April, 1918, the prime minister, David Lloyd George, told the House of Commons that despite heavy casualties in 1917, the British Army in France was considerably stronger than it had been on January 1917. He also gave details of the number of British troops in Mesopotamia, Egypt and Palestine.

Maurice, whose job it was to keep accurate statistics of British military strength, knew that Lloyd George had been guilty of misleading Parliament about the number of men in the British Army. Maurice believed that Lloyd George was deliberately holding back men from the Western Front in an attempt to undermine the position of Sir Douglas Haig. Sir William Robertson had already been replaced by Sir Henry Wilson and he feared that Haig would be the next to lose his job.

Maurice wrote to Sir Henry Wilson, the Chief of the Imperial General Staff pointing out these inaccuracies. He did not receive a reply and after consulting with his wife and mother, he took the decision to write a letter to the newspapers giving the true figures. Maurice knew that by taking this decision, his military career would be brought to an end. However, as he said in a letter to his daughter Nancy: "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."

On 7th May, 1918, the principal newspapers published Maurice's letter accusing David Lloyd George of giving the House of Commons inaccurate information. The letter created a sensation. Maurice was immediately suspended from duty and opposition MPs called for a debate on the issue. This took place on 9th May and the motion put forward amounted to a vote of censure. If the government lost the vote, the prime minister would have been forced to resign. Although many MPs suspected that Lloyd George had mislead Parliament, there was no desire to lose his dynamic leadership during this crucial stage of the war. The government won the vote with a clear majority.

Maurice, by writing the letter, had committed a grave breach of discipline. He was retired from the British Army and was refused a court martial or inquiry where he would have been able to show that David Lloyd George had mislead the House of Commons on both the 9th April and 7th May, 1918.

After leaving the army Maurice became military correspondent of the Daily Chronicle. This was a surprising decision as Robert Donald, the editor, had always been for a long time a close friend and loyal supporter of David Lloyd George. Donald had already rejected an offer of a knighthood from Lloyd George as he feared it might compromise his editorial freedom. It would seem that Donald was beginning to have doubts about the honesty of Lloyd George.

David Lloyd George was furious with Donald's decision to employ Maurice and on 5th October it was announced that a group of his friends led by Sir Henry Dalziel, had purchased the Daily Chronicle. Both Robert Donald and Maurice were forced to resign from the paper.

After leaving the Daily Chronicle Maurice worked as the military correspondent of the Daily News. He also wrote several books about the war including Intrigues of the War (1922), Governments and War (1926), British Strategy (1929) and The Armistices of 1918 (1943).

Maurice was also the principal of the Working Men's College (1922-1933) and East London College (1933-44). Highly valued as a lecturer, in 1926 he was also appointed professor of military studies at London University. He also taught for many years at Trinity College, Cambridge. Frederick Maurice died at Cambridge on 19th May 1951.

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The First World War is available from Amazon

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