Stanley Maxted

Stanley Maxted (21 August 1895 – 10 May 1963) was a Canadian soldier, singer, radio producer, journalist and actor. He worked for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) and later for the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) as a war correspondent during World War II. Following the war, he became an actor.

Maxted was a British home child who came to Toronto, Ontario, Canada in 1906 via Fegan Homes. He enlisted in 1915 and fought in World War I. Twice wounded and gassed during the First World War, he survived and became a singer. In the 1930s, he began working for the CBC as a journalist.

Maxted was seconded to work for the BBC in England during the Second World War. Maxted was present at D-Day and the Battle of Arnhem alongside fellow BBC reporter Guy Byam and newspaper reporters Alan Wood of the Daily Express and Jack Smyth of Reuters. Maxted later covered the war in the Pacific in 1945, which he described as more difficult than reporting from Europe due to the distances covered.

Early life Stanley Herbert Maxted was born on 21 August 1895 in Folkestone, Kent, England to Fanny Emma (née Sanderson) and Herbert Hope Maxted. After his parents' marriage failed, he was taken into care by Fegan Homes (founded by the nonconformist evangelist J. W. C. Fegan) and immigrated to Canada in 1906. Contrary to Fegan's policy of placing young boys on farms to serve as labourers, Maxted boarded as a teenager with the family of Dr. Malcolm Sparrow, a prominent dentist and amateur tenor residing in the Parkdale district of Toronto. Living with the Sparrows afforded Maxted the opportunity to attend Toronto's Parkdale Collegiate Institute, where he won two scholarships and excelled in sports. Maxted also reportedly studied singing privately under the tutelage of the renowned voice instructor Otto Morando.

Following high school, Maxted began forestry studies at the University of Toronto, but the First World War began and he only completed one term before dropping out to enlist. He named his mother, Mrs. Fanny Maxted of Folkestone, Kent, England, as his next of kin on his attestation papers. On 31 July 1917 he received a bullet wound to his right thigh and suffered from the effects of gas. And then on 6 October 1917 during the Battle of Passchendaele he was gassed a second time, causing long term respiratory problems and rendering him speechless for a time. Maxted returned to Canada on 14 February 1918, and stayed with the Sparrow family to convalesce. After his recovery, he was sent on home assignment to CFB Borden, and honorably discharged in January 1919 with the rank of lieutenant. Maxted spent three years living in Pittsburgh, where he was eventually promoted to a foreman. However, he found the work exacerbated his lingering respiratory problems caused by gas exposure,

While living at Montreal in the late 1920s, Maxted joined the 27th Field Battery reserve force of the Canadian Field Artillery. By 1928, he was promoted to the rank of captain, and by 1929, he held the rank of major. By 1927, Maxted was gaining prominence as a tenor in Montreal and began performing regularly with the Montreal Elgar Choir.

By 1929, Maxted was rising in fame on the Canadian national music scene, especially as a performer of A. A. Milne's poetry collection When We Were Very Young, which had been set to music by Harold Fraser-Simson. Maxted received high praise from critics across the country for his humor and artistry in singing Milne's works. Augustus Bridle, the arts critic for the Toronto Daily Star, who himself had been a British Home Child, wrote of Maxted: "He has a delightful voice, as ductile as spun glass in the making."

In 1930, Maxted signed a contract with the Columbia Broadcasting System in New York City, singing live on five different radio programs weekly. One of his biggest concert events was performing for a broadcast on 1 June 1931 aboard the maiden voyage of the new Canadian Pacific ship RMS Empress of Britain, billed as the largest and fastest ship travelling between England and Canada.

In 1933, Maxted's health forced him to return to Toronto, where he took a position as a regional program director with the Canadian Radio Commission (the immediate precursor of the CBC). In an article published in the Ottawa Citizen in November 1933, Maxted gave advice to other radio singers: "Sing the good things whenever you can. Sing in concert as often as possible, for radio tends to give a man a small voice." He returned to Canada in September 1939 at the outset of World War II.

WWII journalist At the start of the second world war, Maxted produced the Carry On, Canada! radio show for the CBC, which used short radio dramas to encourage Canadian men to join the army and others to donate to the war effort. In October 1940, Maxted was loaned from the CBC to the BBC as a producer and commentator.

In 1943, after being anxious to get into the action, Maxted joined the BBC's corps of war reporters. Maxted was told that he and other members of the press, including Alan Wood of the Daily Express, would be accompanying British troops of the 1st Airborne Division (the 'Red Devils') as part of an invasion on the far side of the Rhine River. He also performed in the seventh Victory Loan Star Show that was broadcast coast to coast in Canada on 8 November 1944.

Maxted returned to England and his work as a BBC war correspondent shortly afterwards. In March 1945, he landed with the 6th Airborne Division as part of Operation Varsity on the far side of the Rhine. He recounted the harrowing landing and the events that followed in another Maclean's article, I Crossed the Rhine with the Glider Troops. Maxted was with the first Americans to land at Tokyo, after which he accompanied British and Canadian naval units to Hong Kong. He was also aboard the U.S.S. Missouri when Japanese representatives came on board to sign surrender on 2 September 1945. but his stay in Canada was short-lived. In 1946, he was back in Europe filming, Theirs is the Glory, a documentary that recruited surviving veterans to re-enact the Battle of Arnhem using the actual devastated buildings at Arnhem as the set. Maxted both narrated and appeared as himself in the film. In 1949, he appeared in The Way Back at the Westminster Theatre, which also starred Richard Attenborough. The couple had four children Maxted remarried to Charlotte Elgitha Veronica Boswell Eliott, the daughter of an American-born Scottish Baronet.

In his later years, Maxted experienced worsening lung problems, likely the result of his exposure to gas in WWI. He died on 10 May 1963 in a hospital in London after suffering a heart attack. In obituaries published in Canada and the UK, Maxted was noted primarily for being the "Voice at Arnhem."

Filmography Film Year Title Role Notes1949 I Was a Male War Bride U.S. Consul in Heidelberg Uncredited1953 The Net Prof. Adams Never Let Me Go John Barnes The Final Test Senator 1954 The Love Lottery Stanton 1955 I Am a Camera Curtis B. Ryland, editor 1956 Ett kungligt äventyr J G Parker It's Never Too Late Lee Sax The Weapon Colonel 1957 Across the Bridge Milton Campbell's Kingdom Henry Fergus 1958 The Strange Awakening Mr. Moffat Fiend Without a Face Col. Butler (final film role)

Television Year Show Role Notes 1952 BBC Sunday-Night Theatre Detective Parsons Episode: "Mystery Story"1953 BBC Sunday-Night Theatre Justin Clayfield Episode: "The Bridge" BBC Sunday-Night Theatre Ambassador Episode: "Operation North Star" 1954 BBC Sunday-Night Theatre Colonel Dangerfield Episode: "Halycon Days" 1956 BBC Sunday-Night Theatre Harry Lancaster Episode: "Marching Song"

Stage