By John Baynes. London: Brassey’s, 1995. 244 pp.

Lt Col Harold E. Raugh, Jr., United States Army (Retd) reviews these books exclusively for DJ.

British Army General Sir Ivor Maxse is best known to students of military history as a dynamic commander of troops — having commanded a brigade, division, and corps in combat on the Western Front — and as the innovative and visionary Inspector General of Training of the British Expeditionary Force. As a senior officer during the Great War, he gained his early experience during garrison duty and active service during the last two decades of Queen Victoria’s long reign.
Maxse was born in London in 1862, at the height of British supremacy around the world. His wealthy father, Frederick, was a career naval officer turned radical politician who was at home in aristocratic and intellectual circles — and who had a significant impact upon his son’s development. Having decided on an army career, Ivor Maxse graduated from Sandhurst in 1882.
Early the following year, 1883, Maxse joined his regiment (2nd Battalion, the Royal Fusiliers) at Bellary, on the Malabar Coast of India, some 600 miles south of Bombay. Service in India at this time was frequently characterized by boredom, slothfulness, and unimaginative military training. To break the monotony of peacetime regimental soldiering, Maxse, along with many of his fellow officers, spent his time participating in sports, such as polo, horse racing, and hunting, and travelling throughout the subcontinent. Maxse, however, revealed in his many letters to his father his frustrations and lack of satisfaction. Even after Maxse returned with his regiment to England in 1889, his concern for career prospects increased. Maxse’s father, sympathetic to his son’s military ambitions, coordinated (and paid for) Ivor’s transfer to the Coldstream Guards in 1891.
Service in the Coldstream Guards was also generally undemanding, consisting mainly of “public duties” in London and infrequent tactical field training. Two years later Maxse became aide-de-camp to General Sir Arthur Fremantle, an old family friend who had known Maxse’s father and uncle in the Crimea. Maxse stayed with Fremantle for eighteen months, when the latter served first as General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Scotland, and then as Governor of Malta, before returning to the 2nd Battalion, Coldstream Guards, in Dublin at the end of 1894.
Maxse’s star began to rise in late 1896 when he was selected to be a Bimbashi (Major) in the Egyptian Army, then on the verge of active service in the reconquest of the Sudan. Maxse joined the Egyptian Army in January 1897 during a lull in operations as a railroad was built and additional logistical preparations made to continue the advance to the south. Near the end of May 1897, however, Maxse experienced his baptism of fire against Dervishes near the village of Essalamet. As a soldier in the Anglo-Egyptian-Sudanese force steamrolling inexorably southwards to crush the Khalifa and avenge Gordon, Maxse participated in the Battle of Abu Hamed (7 August 1897), occupation of Berber (4 September 1897), and the Battle of Atbara (8 April 1898). After a short home leave, Maxse returned to the Sudan in time to serve as brigade major of Colonel John Maxwell’s 2d Brigade at the decisive Battle of Omdurman (2 September 1898), and was instrumental in leading his unit into the Dervish capital.
After the Battle of Omdurman, Maxwell was appointed Military Governor of that city, with Maxse as his chief staff officer. As a result, Maxse did not participate in the expedition to Fashoda and the confrontation with the French. Two months later, Major Marchand, the French commander at Fashoda, while in Cairo received the order to surrender Fashoda and withdraw his force. On the return trip to Fashoda, Marchand stopped at Omdurman, where Maxse was designated to escort him back to Fashoda. With that task accomplished, Maxse was appointed commandant of the adjoining Sobat Sub-District, to monitor Marchand’s evacuation via Abyssinia and to explore and map the unknown frontier. Maxse returned to Omdurman in February 1899 to assume command of the 13th Sudanese Battalion and receive the Distinguished Service Order from the Duke of Connaught. Later that year Maxse commanded his battalion in action at Omdebreikat (24 November 1899), where the Khalifa was killed and much of his influence crushed.
Maxse arrived back in Omdurman on 1 December 1899, and two days later received orders for South Africa, where the war with the Boers during the previous two months had gone disastrously for the British. As one of a select group of combat-experienced mid-grade officer, Maxse was assigned to assist in the reorganization of the transport system. This innovation was designed to reduce redundancy and to streamline the logistical resupply system by consolidating and managing transport assets at the theatre level. Maxse commanded a transport/logistics company in direct support of infantry and cavalry units during the four-months, 400 mile advance to Pretoria, which was entered on 5 June 1900. His former brigade commander in the Sudan, Maxwell, was appointed Military Governor of Pretoria and requested Maxse be made Commissioner of Police. In October 1900, shortly after the death of his father, Maxse returned to England. This ended his active service during Queen Victoria’s reign.
The story of Maxse’s early life and military service through the Boer War is detailed in the first ninety pages of this biography of 239 pages of text. The remainder of the book focuses on Maxse’s superb Great War service and includes details of his long life (Maxse died in 1958 at age 96).
Author Lieutenant Colonel Sir John Baynes, Bt. (author of earlier biographies of Generals O’Connor and Urquhart) has written a lively, interesting, and insightful account of Maxse’s life and career. Baynes made extensive use of Maxse’s military papers (at the Imperial War Museum) and personal papers (deposited in the West Sussex Record Office), supplemented by excerpts from Maxse’s published and unpublished books and articles. Indeed, Maxse’s detailed and frequent letters to his father and other family members provide an unparalleled window into the life, customs, activities, and operations of the late Victorian army. Ten detailed maps and sixteen interesting photographs ably complement the well-written text. Chapter endnotes are generally adequate; there is a one-page “Short Selected Bibliography” and four-page Index.
The title of this superb book is derived from a mythological statement attributed to senior World War I German generals who believed the British soldiers fought like lions but were led by donkeys. The leadership and generalship of Maxse, as portrayed by Baynes, help dispel this prevalent, but erroneous, perception. Maxse’s early military service, especially in the Sudan and South Africa, reveal that he was a dedicated, competent, and conscientious officer —certainly not a “donkey”. This informative and well-written study makes a significant contribution to one’s understanding of the attitudes and activities of Victorian army officers, and is a pleasure to read.

Reprinted with author’s permission from Soldiers of the Queen 102 (September 2000)