THE SUDAN CAMPAIGN 1896-1908 measurably to the further alienation of Irish public opinion.
His action in executing a number of them caused him to be the subject of an attack in the House of Commons, led by Mr. John Redmond, the Home Rule leader and gained him the name ‘Bloody Maxwell’. Asquith defended Maxwell against Irish and Liberal politicians' attacks. Maxwell was seen by most as a fair man, and his reputation did not suffer. Later that year he was awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath.
On returning to England, he was appointed to the Privy Council, and made Commander-in-Chief of the Northern Command at York. Maxwell remained at Northern Command until after the end of the war, when he was sent to Egypt as a member of Lord Milner's mission on the future relations of the U.K. with Egypt. He had been promoted full General in June 1919, but was not re-employed, and went on retired pay in 1922.
From his early days in Egypt he was a keen amateur Egyptologist, and a close personal friend of Lord Carnarvon, and Howard Carter, the discoverer of the tomb of Tutankhamen in the Valley of the Kings. He returned to Egypt again in 1923, travelling to Luxor to witness the official opening of the newly discovered tomb which Lord Carnarvon had spent the astronomical sum of £45,000 on locating. Sadly the Earl died shortly afterwards, a victim of the so-called ‘curse of Tutankhamen’, and as Lord Carnarvon’s executor, Maxwell was closely associated with the arrangements made for the preservation of this important discovery. He was President of the Egypt Exploration Society (London) 1925-29, and had over his many years in Egypt assembled a choice collection of Egyptian antiquities which was sold at Sotheby’s on 11/12 June 1928. Some antiquities were bequeathed to the British Museum. Maxwell was also president of the Anglo-Egyptian Officials Association and president of the Kitchener Fund.
His health began to fail in the late 1920’s - he had long been a heavy smoker. In his last years he travelled abroad, and following the sale of his antiquities collection in 1928 he went, on medical advice, to South Africa. While there he caught a chill which turned to pneumonia. He died at Newlands, Cape Province, on 21 February 1929. He was 70 years old.
His body was brought home, and he was given a state funeral at St. Paul’s cathedral on 15 March 1929, where several British Generals acted as pall bearers. He was buried at York Minster.
In addition to those listed above, Maxwell also received the following foreign decorations: Ernestine House Order, Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, 2nd Class (1905); Order of the Red Eagle, Prussia, 2nd Class (1906); Order of the Lion of Zahringen, Baden (1906); Order of Franz Joseph, Austria, Grand Cross (1907); Order of the White Eagle, Russia (awarded 1916 but insignia not received due to the revolution).
The group is sold with a large amount of research, including copied award certificates, and several books, including General Sir John Maxwell, by Sir George Arthur, a good biography autographed by Reginald Wingate, 329pp; From Behind a Closed Door - Secret court martial records of the 1916 Easter Rising, by B. Barton, 344pp; The Easter Rising, by Foy and Barton, 274pp; and The Rising - The complete story of Easter week, by Desmond Ryan, 276pp.
Sir John Maxwell’s extensive collection of private papers is held at Princeton University, having been donated by his American wife.
www.dnw.co.uk
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