Marjorie Maxse
Marjorie Maxse, one of the two children, and the only daughter, of Ernest George Berkeley Maxse, British vice-consul at Algiers, was born on 26th October 1891. Her father's work for the consular service meant that she spent the first twenty-five years of her life abroad. During the First World War she served for a time as an auxiliary nurse in a French military hospital. (1)
According to her biographer, Mark Pottle "Maxse was a natural leader who combined powers of self-control and reserve with clear vision and a single-minded determination to achieve her goals. Her freedom from personal animus was an especially valuable attribute in the world of politics, where she made her career." Maxse was a member of the Conservative Party and in 1921 she was chosen as one of the first women area agents appointed by Conservative central office.
In 1923 Marjorie Maxse was promoted to be the first administrator of the Women's Unionist Organization (WUO) based at the party headquarters in London. It has been pointed out by Neal R. McCrillis, the author of The British Conservative Party in the Age of Universal Suffrage (1998), that she told party agents "to teach women to be voters and Conservative voters, not to create a feminist movement within the Conservative party". (2)
Conservative Party
In 1931 she was appointed chief organization officer, the first woman to occupy such a role in any political party. It has been argued that she was one of the "principal architects" in the development of women's organization in the Conservative Party. (3) Mark Pottle has argued that Marjorie Maxse believed that "women Conservatives were important for fund-raising and canvassing, and... she believed that men mostly did not wish to give them organizational responsibility and so she favoured developing separate women's branches at the constituency level... By retaining a separate organization women stood a greater chance to gain recognition of their role, as well as retain a degree of autonomy. She appreciated that this could also lead to their being marginalized, but on balance she felt that the policy brought about real advances." (4)
In 1940 Maxse was appointed director of the Children's Overseas Reception Board and vice-chair of the Women's Voluntary Services for Civil Defence (WVS). However, she was also chief of staff for Section D (the "D" stood for destruction) of MI6. Ben Macintyre, the author of A Spy Among Friends (2014) has pointed out that "Miss Marjorie Maxse was chief organisation officer for the Conservative Party, a role that apparently equipped her to identify people who would be good at spreading propaganda and blowing things up." (5)
Marjorie Maxse & Kim Philby
Guy Burgess, the Soviet spy, also worked for Section D and suggested to Marjorie Maxse that she should recruit his friend, Kim Philby. Maxse agreed and he was given security clearance by Guy Liddell of MI5. Philby points out that Ralph Deakin, the Foreign News Editor of The Times, summoned him to his office and he was told him that the War Office had telephoned to ask whether he was "available for war work".
In his book, My Secret War (1968) Philby described his first meeting with Maxse: "I found myself in the forecourt of St. Ermin's Hotel, near St James's Park station, talking to Miss Marjorie Maxse. She was an intensely likeable elderly lady (then almost as old as I am now). I had no idea then, as I have no idea now, what her precise position in government was. But she spoke with authority, and was evidently in a position at least to recommend me for interesting employment. At an early stage of our talk, she turned the subject to the possibilities of political work against the Germans in Europe. For ten years, I had taken a serious interest in international politics; I had wandered about Europe in a wide arc from Portugal to Greece; I had already formed some less than half-baked ideas on the subversion of the Nazi regime. So I was reasonably well equipped to talk to Miss Maxse. I was helped by the fact that very few people in England at that early date had given serious thought to the subject. Miss Maxse's own ideas had been in the oven very little longer than mine."
A few days later Philby had another meeting with Maxse: "At our second meeting, she turned up accompanied by Guy Burgess, whom I knew well. I was put through my paces again. Encouraged by Guy's presence, I began to show off, name-dropping shamelessly, as one does at interviews. From time to time, my interlocutors exchanged glances; Guy would nod gravely and approvingly. It turned out that I was wasting my time, since a decision had already been taken. Before we parted, Miss Maxse informed me that, if I agreed, I should sever my connection with The Times and report for duty to Guy Burgess at an address in Caxton Street, in the same block as the St. Ermin's Hotel.... I decided that it was my duty to profit from the experiences of the only secret service man of my acquaintance. So I spent the weekend drinking with Guy Burgess. On the following Monday, I reported to him formally. We both had slight headaches." (6)
Conservative Party Organization
In 1944 Marjorie Maxse accepted an invitation to become vice-chair of the Conservative Party Organization. The 1945 General Election defeat forced the Conservative Party to look hard at its constituency organization, and the old structure of separate men's and women's branches was abolished. As Mark Pottle points out: "The decline of Conservative Party organization in the constituencies by 1945 was seen by Maxse as a possible opportunity for the advancement of women, and yet the introduction of joint branches seemed to frustrate this hope. By being grouped with the men, women party workers lost the autonomy they had previously enjoyed without any real compensatory increase in their power or influence." (7)
Maxse was concerned that the Conservative Party was lagging behind the Labour Party and Liberal Party "in the formulation of policy of special interest to women". (8) She was disappointed when at the 1945 party conference a resolution affirming equal opportunities, "in order to ensure that the best mind or hand shall have the same chance to excel", was rejected. Maxse was a member of the party committee set up by Rab Butler to frame a "women's charter". The committee's report attacked the discrimination experienced by women and called for equal pay in at least some sectors of the economy. The proposals were rejected at the 1948 annual conference. (8)
Miss Maxse retired in 1951. The following year she was appointed DBE. She remained active in the work of the United Nations Association and also on behalf of the Anglican church in the diocese of Chichester.
Marjorie Maxse died, unmarried, on 3rd May, 1975 at St George's Retreat, Ditchling, East Sussex.
Primary Sources
(1) Kim Philby, My Secret War (1968)
I found myself in the forecourt of St. Ermin's Hotel, near St James's Park station, talking to Miss Marjorie Maxse. She was an intensely likeable elderly lady (then almost as old as I am now). I had no idea then, as I have no idea now, what her precise position in government was. But she spoke with authority, and was evidently in a position at least to recommend me for "Interesting" employment. At an early stage of our talk, she turned the subject to the possibilities of political work against the Germans in Europe. For ten years, I had taken a serious interest in international politics; I had wandered about Europe in a wide arc from Portugal to Greece; I had already formed some less than half-baked ideas on the subversion of the Nazi regime. So I was reasonably well equipped to talk to Miss Maxse. I was helped by the fact that very few people in England at that early date had given serious thought to the subject. Miss Maxse's own ideas had been in the oven very little longer than mine.
I passed this first examination. As we parted, Miss Maxse asked me to meet her again at the same place a few days later. At our second meeting, she turned up accompanied by Guy Burgess, whom I knew well. I was put through my paces again. Encouraged by Guy's presence, I began to show off, name-dropping shamelessly, as one does at interviews. From time to time, my interlocutors exchanged glances; Guy would nod gravely and approvingly. It turned out that I was wasting my time, since a decision had already been taken. Before we parted, Miss Maxse informed me that, if I agreed, I should sever my connection with The Times and report for duty to Guy Burgess at an address in Caxton Street, in the same block as the St. Ermin's Hotel.
The Times gave me little difficulty. Deakin huffed and sighed a little, but he had nothing spectacular to offer me. So I left Printing House Square without fanfare, in a manner wholly appropriate to the new, secret and important career for which I imagined myself heading. I decided that it was my duty to profit from the experiences of the only secret service man of my acquaintance. So I spent the weekend drinking with Guy Burgess. On the following Monday, I reported to him formally. We both had slight headaches.
The organization to which I became attached called itself the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS). It was also widely known as MI5, while to the innocent public at large it was simply the secret service. The ease of my entry surprised me. It appeared later that the only enquiry made into my past was a routine reference to MI5, who passed my name through their records and came back with the laconic statement: Nothing Recorded Against. Today, every new spy scandal in Britain produces a flurry of judicial statements on the subject of "positive vetting." But in that happier Eden positive vetting had never been heard of. Sometimes, in the early weeks, I felt that perhaps I had not made the grade after all. It seemed that somewhere, lurking in deep shadow, there must be another service, really secret and really powerful, capable of backstairs machination on such a scale as to justify the perennial suspicions of, say, the French! But it soon became clear that such was not the case. It was the death of an illusion. Its passing caused me no pain.
Guy first took me to the office that had been assigned to me. It was a small room with a table, a chair and a telephone, and nothing else. With a snort of annoyance, Guy disappeared down the corridor and came back with a sheaf of foolscap which he laid on the table. Satisfied that I was now fully equipped for my duties, he told me that my salary would be the same as his: £600 per annum, paid monthly in cash and no nonsense from the Inland Revenue. No snooping after a single secret shilling! In fact, the secrecy of pay-scales concealed gross inequalities. Each contract was theoreticallv a private, secret one between the Chief and his subordinate. And if the Chief could get A cheaper than B, whatever their respective merits, he would be silly not to do so. However, I was quite happy with the arrangement, and I was then taken off to be introduced to some of my future colleagues. As they play no substantial part in my story, I shall not embarrass them by mentioning their names.
The section of SIS in which I found myself was known as Section D (for Destruction). I never saw its charter if it had one. From talks with my colleag-ues, I gathered that the object of the section was to help defeat the enemy by stirring up active resistance to his domination and destroying, by non-militarv means, the sources of his power. The head of the section was Colonel Lawrence Grand, to whom I was introduced a few days after joining his staff. Tall and lean, he looked startlingly like the dream-figure who should have approached me in Germany or Spain. The difference was that his mind was certainly not clipped. It ranged free and handsome over the whole field of his awesome responsibilities, never shrinking from an idea, however big or wild.
References
(1) Mark Pottle, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004-2014)
(2) Neal R. McCrillis, The British Conservative Party in the Age of Universal Suffrage (1998) page 62
(3) The Times (6th May 1975)
(4) Mark Pottle, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004-2014)
(5) Ben Macintyre, A Spy Among Friends (2014)
(6) Kim Philby, My Secret War (1968) pages 9-10
(7) Mark Pottle, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004-2014)
(8) G. E. Maguire, Conservative Women: A History of Women and the Conservative Party (1998)
(8) Mark Pottle, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004-2014)