John Maxwell (British Army officer)

Maxwell served in South Africa during the Second Boer War (1899–1902). He departed Southampton in the SS Mexican in February 1900,[6] and arrived in Cape Town the following month to take up a staff appointment as a special service officer.[7] He commanded the 14th Brigade on Lord Roberts' march to Pretoria, and after the successful occupation of that city was appointed Military Governor of Pretoria and the Western Transvaal in 1900, serving as such until March 1902, when he relinquished the office to allow for gradual extension of civilian rule.[8] As governor he filled a difficult post "with great tact and ability ... gained the confidence and esteem of the general public" according to a contemporary news report.[8] After leaving Pretoria he held a command in the Western district, before returning to the United Kingdom in July 1902,[9] following the end of the war the previous month. In his final despatch from South Africa in June 1902, Lord Kitchener, Commander-in-Chief of the forces during the latter part of the war, described Maxwell as an officer with "an energetic mind, and a sound judgment, which, coupled with his kindly and considerate disposition, have enabled him to render valuable service".[10] For his service in the war, he was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) in the April 1901 South African Honours list (the order was dated to 29 November 1900[11]) and a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) in the 1902 Coronation Honours list,[12][13] but was only invested to both orders after his return home, by King Edward VII at Buckingham Palace on 24 October 1902.[14]

After his return, Maxwell was appointed Chief Staff Officer of the Third Army Corps stationed in Ireland,[15] with the temporary rank of brigadier General on the Staff. As such he was based at army headquarters at the Royal Hospital, Kilmainham from September 1902 until 1904.[16] He became General Officer Commanding British Troops in Egypt in 1908 and was then deployed on the Western Front in the First World War until he returned to his role as General Officer Commanding British Troops in Egypt in late 1914 and, in that capacity, successfully held the Suez Canal against the Ottoman Raid on the Suez Canal.[17]

Maxwell is best known for his controversial handling of the 1916 Easter Rising in Ireland. After it broke out on 24 April 1916, Martial law was declared for the city and county of Dublin by the Lord Lieutenant Lord Wimborne,[18] but the British government at the same time took measures to allow for the court martial of persons breaching the Defence of the Realm Act (DORA), passed 8 August 1914.[19]

Maxwell arrived in Ireland on Friday 28 April as "military governor" with "plenary powers" under Martial law, replacing Lovick Friend as the primary British military commander in Ireland. Afterwards, he set about dealing with the rebellion under his understanding of Martial law. During the week of 2–9 May, Maxwell was in sole charge of trials and sentences by "field general court martial", in which trials were conducted without defence counsel or jury members and in camera. He had 3,400 people arrested and 183 civilians tried, 90 of whom were sentenced to death. Fifteen were shot between 3 and 12 May.[20]

However, Prime Minister H. H. Asquith and his government became concerned with the speed and secrecy of events, and intervened in order to stop more executions. In particular, there was concern that DORA regulations for general courts martial were not being applied. These regulations called for a full court of thirteen members, a professional judge, a legal advocate, and for the proceedings to be held in public, provisions which could have prevented some of the executions. Maxwell admitted in a report to Asquith in June that the impression that the leaders were killed in cold blood and without a trial had resulted in a "revulsion of feeling" that had emerged in favour of the rebels, and was the result of the confusion between applying DORA as opposed to Martial law (which Maxwell had actually pressed for from the beginning).[21] As a result, Maxwell had the remaining death sentences commuted to penal servitude. Although Asquith had promised to publish the court martial proceedings, the transcripts were not made public until 1999.[22]

Memorial to General Sir John Maxwell and Louise Selina Maxwell in the crypt at York Minster

In 1916 Maxwell was assigned to be General Officer Commanding-in-Chief for Northern Command at York.[23] He was promoted in June 1919 to full general and he retired in 1922. He died on 21 February 1929 and his memorial is in the crypt of York Minster.[24]