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.
Early career
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.
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. After Maxwell had retired, James Chuter Ede, taking the chair for Maxwell's Clarke Hall lecture in 1949, said that: On 10 July 1940 the Security Executive, in response to communist propaganda against various government departments, approached the Home Office to consider the drafting of a new defence regulation making it an offence to attempt to subvert duly constituted authority. Maxwell and Sir Horace Wilson were against the idea and Maxwell wrote to the Home Secretary, Sir John Anderson, with a minute on the 6 September 1940 that exemplified his libertarian ideals: Sir John called this minute ‘a most admirable statement of principle’ and the proposed new regulation was dropped. Lord Allen of Abbeydale echoed the comments of others and commented on Maxwell: 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.
Personal life
Maxwell married Dr Jessie McNaughten Campbell, daughter of the Revd John Campbell, of Kirkcaldy, at the Friends’ meeting-house at Jordans, Buckinghamshire on 19 August 1919. The couple had two sons. From 1948 to 1950 he was governor of Bedford College. He died on 1 July 1963 at his home, Chasemores, Coldharbour, near Dorking, Surrey. His wife survived him.
Character
, Maxwell's private secretary from 1939, stated that he had a fervent belief that the Home Office had important duty to safeguard liberty. In offering advice, Maxwell always knew when to press his point and when not. He had the appearance and in some ways the temperament of a don, but he was at the same time a great administrator, firm and just in disciplinary matters and generous in praise. He had a tremendous work ethic; he was usually first in the office and last out. He was also a humble man, if the 'phone rang at home, where his doctor wife practised, he would always answer, "Dr Maxwell’s telephone". Maxwell and his wife would give annual parties at Toynbee Hall, for the Home Office charladies, all of whom he knew by their first names.
