THE SUDAN CAMPAIGN 1896-1908 1929.
When Sir Herbert Kitchener succeeded Grenfell as Sirdar in 1892, he retained Maxwell on his staff, and there grew a lasting friendship between them. The next few years were spent planning the reconquest of the Sudan, until the crushing defeat of the Italians by the Abyssinians at Adowa on 1 March 1896, facilitated a hastening of the advance. This led to the battle of Firket on 7 June, in which Maxwell commanded the 3rd Egyptian infantry brigade, retaining this position until the recapture of Dongola on 23 September. During 1897 he acted as ‘governor of Nubia’, administering the area in which the railway was being pushed forward. During the 1898 operations he commanded the 1st Sudanese brigade at the battle of Atbara on 8 April, and was transferred to the 2nd brigade for the battle of Omdurman on 2 September. He was mentioned in despatches and received the thanks of both Houses of Parliament. After the Dervish collapse he was Governor of Omdurman, and promoted brevet Lieutenant-Colonel, but, disappointed at not being made Sirdar in succession to Kitchener, he resigned from the Egyptian army.
On the outbreak of the Boer war in South Africa in October 1899, Maxwell was still in the Sudan, but in February 1900 he went to the Cape. He commanded the 14th infantry brigade, which he led to Pretoria, distinguishing himself on the Zand River. After the capture of Pretoria on 5 June he was, on Kitchener's recommendation, appointed its military governor, and thus administered a large area of the Transvaal. He was made K.C.B. and appointed temporary Major-General in 1900. In 1902 he received a brevet Colonelcy and was appointed C.M.G. Prior to the end of hostilities in 1902, he commanded a column based on Vryburg, where he remained after the conclusion of peace on 31 May.
In the autumn of 1902 Maxwell was chosen by Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught, then acting Commander-in-Chief in Ireland, as his chief staff officer at Dublin. There he remained until May 1904, when Connaught became Inspector-General of the Forces, and Maxwell went with him to London. The Duke became Inspector-General of the Forces, and Maxwell remained in his position as chief staff officer, retaining the temporary rank of Brigadier-General. In July 1905 Maxwell accompanied the Duke on a visit to Gotha for the ‘coming of age’ celebrations of the Duke of Coburg. In September 1906 the Duke was invited to observe the German military manoeuvres in Silesia. He went on to meet the Kaiser, and he says “we all received more decorations. I am now fairly smothered.” The tour continued to Baden for an official visit. In September 1907 they went to Vienna to review H.R.H’s Duke of Connaught’s Austrian regiment.
At the end of 1907 the Duke was transferred to Malta as Commander-in-Chief in the Mediterranean, and Maxwell, promoted Major- General of the General Staff at the end of 1906, once more accompanied him, and having been made Commander in Chief, Malta served with him until September 1908.
In 1908 Maxwell left Malta to command the British troops in Egypt, possibly as reward for his service with the Duke, though he still wanted to be Sirdar. Maxwell received the large Messina Earthquake Merit medal for assistance rendered to Italy, following the great earthquake on 28 December 1908. His tenure of office in Egypt lasted until November 1912, shortly after his promotion to Lieutenant- General, and was perhaps the most enjoyable period of his life. After leaving this appointment he went on half pay. On the outbreak of the First World War Maxwell was appointed Colonel of the Black Watch, recalled and, being a fluent French speaker, sent to French headquarters as head of the British Military Mission. There he served until the opening of the battle of the Marne, when, finding little scope for his activities, he was glad in September 1914 to resume command of all troops in Egypt. The position was important and exacting. He opposed British annexation, and proclaimed and tactfully applied martial law. He constructed defences along the Suez Canal, and when in February 1915 the Turks attacked the canal they were easily driven back. Events, however, rapidly increased Maxwell's responsibilities. Egypt became the base for the Gallipoli campaign of 1915-16, which Maxwell himself did not favour, though he disliked withdrawal as harmful to British prestige. After the Gallipoli evacuation the troops were withdrawn to Egypt to be refitted before being sent to the Salonika front. The Palestine expedition of 1916 was also based on Egypt. Maxwell's personal position was further complicated by the system of command which grew up around him. Some 400,000 men, including British, Indian, Australian, New Zealand, and Egyptian troops, were quartered in or based on Egypt, while three different groups of higher authorities were concerned in their command and administration. After repelling an attack by the German-armed and financed Senussi tribesmen in the western desert in January 1916, Maxwell was recalled home in March. He had been made K.C.M.G. in 1915.
Shortly after Maxwell's return to England, the Easter rising broke out in Dublin on 23 April 1916, and was followed by a week of bitter fighting. Martial law was proclaimed in Dublin on Easter Monday, and extended to the rest of Ireland the following day, so giving dictatorial power to the commanding officer. Initially this was Brigadier-General W. H. M. Lowe, but on Friday 28 April he was superseded by Maxwell, who had been sent specially as Commander-in-Chief of troops, Ireland, by the Asquith government.
Maxwell was given full authority to restore order, put down the rebellion, and punish its participants. As the week progressed, the fighting in some areas did become intense, characterised by prolonged, fiercely contested street battles. Military casualties were highest at Mount Street Bridge. There, newly arrived troops made successive, tactically inept, frontal attacks on determined and disciplined volunteers occupying several strongly fortified outposts. They lost 234 men, dead or wounded, while just five rebels died. In some instances, lapses in military discipline occurred. Soldiers were alleged to have killed 15 unarmed men in North King Street, near the Four Courts, during intense gun battles there on 28 and 29 April.
Overall the British authorities responded competently to the Rising. Reinforcements were speedily drafted into the capital and by Friday 28 April, the 1,600 rebels (more had joined during the week) were facing 18-20,000 soldiers. From Thursday the G.P.O. building was entirely cut off from other rebel garrisons. Next day it came under a ferocious artillery attack which also devastated much of central Dublin. Having learnt the lessons of Mount Street Bridge, the troops did not attempt a mass infantry attack. Their strategy was effective. It compelled the insurgent leaders, based at the Post Office, first to evacuate the building and later to accept the only terms on offer - unconditional surrender. Their decision was then made known to and accepted, sometimes reluctantly, by all the rebel garrisons still fighting both in the capital and in the provinces.
Maxwell then ordered a general round-up of suspects and the trial by court martial of those involved in the rising. He thought his task distasteful, and had to make difficult decisions, and while those decisions he made were understandable, with hindsight some were wrong. Maxwell never doubted that its leaders should be court-martialled and those most prominent executed. He was also determined that, in order to crush militant nationalism, those who had surrendered with them, and their suspected supporters, should be arrested and their arms seized in a nationwide sweep by soldiers, supported by police. In total, the security forces arrested 3,430 men and 79 women and of these 1,841 were sent to England and interned there. They were substantial figures in relation to the scale of the outbreak, though most (about 2,700) had been released by early August 1916. Meanwhile, those thought to have organised the insurrection had been held back in Ireland for trial – 190 men and one woman, Countess Markievicz. In 90 cases the court’s verdict was ‘Death by being shot’. Maxwell only confirmed this judgement on 15 defendants, and these were executed between 3-12 May 1916. According to Maxwell’s daughter ‘it cost him hours of agony to sign the death-warrants of the Rebel Irish leaders’ (Arthur, p.313), but he believed it his duty.
Maxwell was in fact very sympathetic to the plight and poverty of the Irish. However, the crucial decision on the prisoners' fate should not have been left to the local commander. A clear political decision should have been made by government; the fault was Asquith's, who could have prevented the executions. There can be no doubt that the response of the British government to the Rising contributed
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