Maurice Gerald Holmes

Sir Maurice Gerald Holmes (14 June 1885 – 4 April 1964) was a British civil servant.

Family and education Holmes was the only son of Edmond Gore Alexander Holmes Chief Inspector of Elementary Schools and Florence Mary Syme. He had two sisters, one of whom was the early woman engineer Verena Winifred Holmes. Educated at Wellington College, Holmes read jurisprudence at Balliol where he received a First. He was called to the bar in 1909 but, while waiting to start practising, he took a placement at the Board of Education (using his father's connections there), and decided to make it his career instead of law.

Career Holmes joined the Board of Education in 1909, where he was to stay until 1945, except for the First World War, when he joined the Army and rose to the rank of lieutenant-colonel.

Holmes rose to become Director of Establishments in 1923–26, reaching the position of Deputy Secretary in 1931. In 1937, he replaced Sir Henry Pelham as the Permanent Secretary. During the Second World War, Holmes was given the task of developing the so-called Green Book which served as a precursor for the landmark Education Act 1944. and then received the CBE in 1919. He was created Companion of the Order of the Bath in 1929, and knighted as a Knight Commander (KCB) in 1938. He was invested as a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire (GBE) in the 1946 New Year Honours.

Works Sir Maurice wrote Some Bibliographical Notes on the Novels of George Bernard Shaw, published 1929, and An Introduction to the Bibliography of Captain Cook, published 1936.

Personal life

He married Ivy Dunsford in 1917, with whom he had two daughters. One of his daughters, Barbara, married Francis Hugh Addison Phillips, nephew of Eleanor Addison Phillips, in 1946.