Alexander Maxwell

Sir Alexander Maxwell (9 March 1880 – 1 July 1963) was a British civil servant notable for his service as Permanent Under-Secretary of State at the Home Office from 1938 to 1948.

Early life and education

Alexander Maxwell was born at Sharston Mount, Northen Etchells, Cheshire, on 9 March 1880, the eldest son of the Revd Joseph Matthew Townsend Maxwell, a Congregational minister, and his wife, Louisa Maria Brely Snell, a Quaker GP. He was educated at Plymouth College before going up to Christ Church, Oxford. He obtained first classes in honour moderations in 1901 and literae humaniores in 1903. He won the Matthew Arnold Memorial Prize in 1904 and the chancellor's English essay prize in 1905. The first open borstal was started in 1930 at Lowdham Grange in Nottinghamshire. In 1932 Maxwell became deputy under-secretary of state at the Home Office.

Permanent Secretary In 1938, when Sir Samuel Hoare was home secretary, Maxwell was promoted to permanent under-secretary. He held the post for the next ten years, during which he became the most prominent and respected member of the department. Years later, Sir Samuel, then Viscount Templewood, would write:

During the Second World War he worked to try and trammel, as much as possible, the state's restrictions on civil liberties. He dealt with the imprisonment of enemy aliens and the treatment of those detained under the Defence Regulation 18B in addition to having to deal with the Mosleys. It was on his advice that the government in 1940 sent out Paterson to sift those detainees whose sympathies were genuinely with the Allied cause.

On 10 August 1948 it was announced that Maxwell was to retire at the end of September, and that Sir Frank Newsam had been appointed to follow him as Permanent Secretary at the Home Office. In retirement Maxwell was a member of the royal commission on capital punishment in 1949. Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) in 1936, Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) in 1939, and Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath (GCB) in 1945.