Alexander Maxwell

Sir Alexander Maxwell (9 March 1880 – 1 July 1963) was a British civil servant notable for his service as Permanent Under-Secretary of State at the Home Office from 1938 to 1948. Early life and education 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.