Admiral Frederick Augustus Maxse

From Wikipedia: Frederick Maxse

Admiral Frederick Augustus Maxse (Saturday, 13 April 1833 – Monday, 25 June 1900) was a British Royal Navy officer and radical liberal campaigner. NOTE: date of birth conflicts with current 25 June 1833

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.

Career

Maxse was naval aide-de-camp to Lord Raglan after the Battle of the Alma on Wednesday, 20 September 1854 in the Crimean War. He was an atheist and vegetarian.

Maxse retired from the Royal Navy 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, John Stuart Mill's Land Tenure Reform Association, the National Education League and the Eastern Question Association, founded to campaign against the atrocities of the Ottoman Empire during the Bulgarian April Uprising of 1876. He also founded the Electoral Reform Association which campaigned for the equalisation of parliamentary constituencies.

He died in London.

Works

Maxse was a friend of Joseph Chamberlain, 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:

• General Sir Ivor Maxse (1862–1958), British Army officer of the First World War
• Leopold Maxse (1864–1932), editor
• Olive Hermione Maxse (1867–1955), died unmarried; was a model for Edward Burne-Jones
• Violet Georgina Maxse (1872–1958), editor; married, firstly, Lord Edward Cecil and secondly, Alfred Milner, 1st Viscount Milner

From Wikisource: Dictionary of National Biography, 1901 supplement, Volume 3

Maxse, Frederick Augustus (1833–1900), admiral and political writer, second son of James Maxse (died 1864) of Arnos Vale, Bristol, by Lady Caroline Fitzhardinge (1803–1886), daughter of Frederick Augustus, fifth earl of Berkeley, was born in 1833. Sir Henry Berkeley Fitzhardinge Maxse [q. v.] was his elder brother.

He entered the navy, obtained his lieutenancy in 1852, and as naval aide-de-camp to Lord Raglan after the battle of the Alma, displayed a conspicuous gallantry in carrying despatches, which caused his promotion to the rank of commander in December 1855. He retired from the service with the rank of admiral in 1867, and unsuccessfully contested the borough of Southampton in the radical interest at the general election of November 1868. He was also beaten in a subsequent contest for Middlesex in February 1874; nor did he ever succeed in entering parliament. Indeed the curious idiosyncrasies which made his character an interesting study to his friend Mr. George Meredith (see Beauchamp's Career) unfitted him for modern political life. His liberalism was of no school, and on certain questions, e.g. woman's suffrage and home rule, he was as tenaciously conservative as the highest of Tories. He was an occasional contributor to periodical literature, and his articles on the conduct of certain of the operations in the Crimea, which appeared in the 'National Review' under the titles 'Admiral Lord Lyons,' 'My Two Chiefs in the Crimea,' 'Lord Raglan's Traducers,' and 'The War Correspondent at Bay,' during the first quarter of 1899, constitute a valuable accession to the materials at the disposal of the future historian.

Maxse died on Monday, 25 June 1900. He married, in 1862, Cecilia Steele, daughter of Colonel Steele, by whom he left issue two sons — Major Frederick Ivor Maxse of the Coldstream guards, and Mr. L. J. Maxse, editor of the 'National Review'—and two daughters, the younger of whom, Violet Maxse, married Lord Edward Cecil.

His separate publications are the following:

• 'The Education of the Agricultural Poor, being an Address at a Meeting of the Botley and South Hampshire Farmers Club,' London, 1868, 8vo.
• 'Our Political Duty: a Lecture,' London, 1870, 8vo.
• 'A Plea for Intervention,' London, 1871, 8vo.
• 'The Causes of Social Revolt: a Lecture,' London, 1872, 8vo.
• 'Objections to Woman Suffrage: a Speech … at the Electoral Reform Conference held at the Freemasons' Tavern, Tuesday, 17 November 1874.'
• 'Whether the Minority of Electors should be represented by a Majority in the House of Commons? A Lecture upon Electoral Reform,' London, 1875, 8vo.
• 'Woman Suffrage: the Counterfeit and the True. Reasons for opposing both,' London, 1877, 8vo; new edit. 1884.
• 'National Education and its Opponents: a Lecture,' London, 1877, 8vo.
• 'The French Press and Ireland: two Letters on the Irish Question addressed to "La Justice,"' London, 1888, 8vo.
• 'Home Rule: an Expostulation,' London, 1889, 8vo.
• 'Judas! a Political Tract, dedicated to the Intelligent Parliamentary Elector,' London, 1894, 8vo.

For uncollected articles see 'National Review,' August 1895, September 1896, May 1897, January, February, March, April, July 1899, June 1900.

[Walford's County Families; Gent. Mag. 1854 ii. 497, 1869 i. 671; Ann. Reg. 1855, ii. 356; Times, Wednesday, 27 June 1900; British Museum Cat.; Kinglake's Invasion of the Crimea, 6th edition iv. 23.]

From MyHeritage: Frederick A Nurse: 1891 England & Wales Census

5 April 1891 Census for residents of Dunley Hill House, Crocknorth Road, Effingham, Surrey RH5 6SL 51.239786, -0.407515, England

• Frederick A Maxse, head, married, male, aged 57 [born about 1834], in London; Retired Admiral, Royal Navy
• Leopold T Maxse, son, married, male, aged 26 [born about 1865], in London; On own account, Student of Law
• Katherine Maxse, [ERROR daughter CORRECTION daughter-in-law], married, female, aged 23 [born about 1868], in London
• Olive H Maxse, daughter, single, female, aged 24 [born about 1867], in Bursledon, Hampshire
• Violet G Maxse, daughter, single, female, aged 19 [born about 1872], in London
• Gertrude S Wittering[?], visitor, single, female, aged 34 [born about 1857], in Königsberg, Germany
• Joseph A Chamberlain, visitor, single, male, aged 27 [born about 1864], in Birmingham, Warwickshire; On his [own] means
• Sidney A Fane, visitor, single, male, aged 23 [born about 1868], in Littlemore, Oxfordshire; Bill broker Clerk
• Mrs Asttes[?], servant, widow, female, aged 29 [born about 1862], in [Chutn? probably Churton], Cheshire; Cook Domestic Servant; Yes
• Bertha Repuand[?], servant, single, female, aged 24 [born about 1867], in France; Lady's Maid Servant; Yes
• Mary Walker, servant, single, female, aged 27 [born about 1864], in Scotland; Housemaid Domestic Servant; Yes
• Edith Hancker, servant, single, female, aged 20 [born about 1871], in Mortlake, Surrey; Housemaid Domestic Servant; Yes
• Kate Page, servant, single, female, aged 17 [born about 1874], in Sawbridgeworth, Hertfordshire; Housemaid Domestic Servant; Yes
• Helen Lynn, servant, single, female, aged 20 [born about 1871], in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire; Housemaid Domestic Servant; Yes
• George Evans, servant, married, male, aged 38 [born about 1853], in [Brag? possibly Bray], Berkshire; Butler Domestic Servant; Yes
• Henry Clerk, servant, single, male, aged 25 [born about 1866], in Bishop Compton, Somersetshire; Footman Domestic Servant; Yes

From British Newspaper Archive: London Evening Standard Wednesday, 27 June 1900 Page 1 Deaths

Deaths: Maxse. — On Monday, 25 June 1900 [instant], of enteric fever, at 2 South Place, Knightsbridge, Admiral Frederick Augustus Maxse, aged 67. No flowers, by request. 2 South Place, now South Lodge, 245 Knightsbridge, London SW7 1DG 51.5015452, -0.1662145