"Under Secretary of State" Alexander Maxwell Hand Written Letter For Sale

Up for sale the British "Under-Secretary of State" Alexander Maxwell Hand Written Letter.

ES-9221

Sir Alexander Maxwell, GCB, KBE

(9 March 1880 – 1 July 1963) was a British

civil servant notable for his service as Permanent Under-Secretary of State to the Home Office

from 1938 to 1948. Maxwell was a hard worker and a superb administrator who was

well regarded by his department and was particularly interested in civil

liberty, even during the height of the Second World

War, and also delinquency.

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.

Maxwell joined the Home Office

in 1904, where he was private secretary to successive secretaries of state. In

1917 Maxwell was acting chief inspector of reformatory and industrial schools

and it was probably at this time that he became interested in delinquency. In

1924 he was made an assistant secretary and in 1928 when he became chairman of

the Prison Commission. He

worked closely with Alexander Paterson on the

concept of the open borstal; the idea was Paterson's but the administration was

done by Maxwell. 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.