John Redcliffe-Maud, Baron Redcliffe-Maud

{{Short description|British civil servant and diplomat (1906–1982)}}

__NOTOC__

{{Infobox officeholder

|honorific-prefix = The Right Honourable

|name = The Lord Redcliffe-Maud

|honorific-suffix = {{postnominals|country=GBR|size=100%|GCB|CBE}}

|image = John Redcliffe-Maud.jpg

|caption = Portrait of Redcliffe-Maud

|birthname = John Primatt Redcliffe Maud

|birth_date = {{birth date|1906|02|03|df=y}}

|birth_place = Bristol, England

|death_date = {{death date and age|1982|11|20|1906|02|03|df=y}}

|death_place = Oxford, England

|restingplace = Holywell Cemetery, Oxford, England

|party =

|occupation = Civil servant

|spouse = Jean Hamilton

|children = 4, including Humphrey

}}

John Primatt Redcliffe Redcliffe-Maud, Baron Redcliffe-Maud, {{postnominals|country=GBR|size=100%|sep=,|GCB|CBE}} (3 February 1906 – 20 November 1982), was a British civil servant and diplomat.{{cite web| url=http://www.aim25.ac.uk/cgi-bin/vcdf/detail?coll_id=3814&inst_id=1 | title=Maud, John Primatt Redcliffe Redcliffe-, 1906–1982, Baron Redcliffe-Maud of Bristol, civil servant and diplomat | website=AIM25 | location=UK | accessdate=19 January 2015 }}{{Cite ODNB | doi = 10.1093/ref:odnb/31427| title = The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography| year = 2004}}

Early life

Born in Bristol, Maud was educated at Eton College and New College, Oxford. He gained a Second in Classical Moderations in 1928 and a First in Literae Humaniores ('Greats') in 1928.Oxford University Calendar 1932, Oxford : Oxford University Press, 1932, pp. 263, 312 At Oxford he was a member of the Oxford University Dramatic Society (OUDS). In 1928, he gained the one-year Henry P. Davison scholarship to Harvard UniversityOxford University Calendar 1932, Oxford : Oxford University Press, 1932, p.344 where he was awarded an A.B. in 1929.Who's Who, 1965, London : A. & C. Black, 1965, p.2063 From 1929 to 1932 he was a Junior Research Fellow University College, Oxford and from 1932 to 1939 Fellow (Praelector in Politics)Oxford University Calendar 1935, Oxford : Oxford University Press, 1935, p.274 and Dean of the college. He was awarded a Rhodes Travelling Scholarship to Africa in 1932 and held a University Lectureship in Politics at Oxford University, 1938–9.

Civil service

During World War II, he was Master of Birkbeck College (1939–1943){{cite web |url=http://www.bbk.ac.uk/about-us/past-officers |title=Principals and Masters |author= |date= |website=Birkbeck University of London |publisher= |access-date=3 October 2019 |quote=}} and was also based at Reading Gaol, working for the Ministry of Food. He became a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1942,{{London Gazette| issue=35586 |page=2489 |supp=y | date=5 June 1942 }} and after the war, he worked at the Ministry of Education (1945–1952), rising to Permanent Secretary and then the Ministry of Fuel and Power until 1958. He became a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in 1946,{{London Gazette| issue=37598 |page=2759 | date=4 June 1946 |supp=y }} and was raised to a Knight Grand Cross in 1955.{{London Gazette| issue=40366 | supp=y |page=3 | date=31 December 1954 }} Inter alia, Maud appeared on the BBC programme The Brains Trust in 1958. He was High Commissioner to the Union of South Africa from 1959 to 1961, and Ambassador from 1961, when the country became a republic and left the Commonwealth. In 1963, he became Master of University College, Oxford, where he had been a Fellow before the Second World War.

The Maud Committee

File:England RedcliffeMaud.png.]]

In March 1964, Maud was appointed by Sir Keith Joseph, at the request of local council associations, to head a departmental committee looking into the management of local government. The Maud Committee reported three years later."Management of Local Government", Committee on the Management of Local Government, HMSO, 1967. During the course of the inquiry, Maud was chosen to head a Royal Commission on the reform of all local government in England. He was awarded a life peerage, hyphenating his surname{{London Gazette |issue=44349 |date=23 June 1967 |page=7032}} to become Baron Redcliffe-Maud, of the City and County of Bristol in 1967.{{London Gazette| issue=44362 |page=7641 | date=11 July 1967 }}

File:Entance to Redcliffe-Maud House, University College annex, Oxford.JPG Annexe "Stavertonia" in North Oxford.]]

File:Redcliffe-Maud House, University College annex, Oxford.JPG

The Report of the Royal Commission on Local Government in England, popularly known as the Redcliffe-Maud Report, was published in 1969. It advocated the wholesale reform of local council boundaries and the institution of large unitary councils based on the principle of mixing rural and urban areas. Accepted by the Labour government of Harold Wilson with minor changes, the opposition from rural areas convinced the Conservative opposition to oppose it and no further action was taken after the Conservatives won the 1970 general election.{{cite book| first=Bruce | last=Wood | title=The Process of Local Government Reform 1966–74 | publisher=George Allen & Unwin | year=1976 | pages=74–75 }}

Retirement

He retired as Master of University College in 1976, to be succeeded by the leading lawyer Lord Goodman. His 1973 portrait by Ruskin Spear can be seen in the National Portrait Gallery, London.{{cite web| url=http://www.npg.org.uk/live/search/person.asp?LinkID=mp05691 | title=John Primatt Redcliffe-Maud, Baron Redcliffe-Maud | publisher=National Portrait Gallery, London | accessdate=6 December 2012 }}{{Cite web |url=https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/john-primatt-redcliffe-maud-baron-redcliffe-maud-158003 |title=John Primatt Redcliffe-Maud, Baron Redcliffe-Maud by Ruskin Spear |access-date=19 January 2015 |publisher=Art UK}} Another portrait hangs in the Hall at University College in Oxford.

Family

Redcliffe-Maud was married to Jean Hamilton, who was educated at Somerville College, Oxford. His son, Humphrey Maud, was one of Benjamin Britten's favourite boys while he was at Eton. Sir John intervened to curtail Humphrey's frequent visits to stay with Britten on his own. The incident is described in John Bridcut's Britten's Children.

Death and legacy

John Redcliffe-Maud is buried in Holywell Cemetery, Oxford. His archive is held by the London School of Economics Library.{{Cite web |url=http://archives.lse.ac.uk/TreeBrowse.aspx?src |title=Redcliffe-Maud |access-date=6 December 2012 |website=LSE Archives |publisher=London School of Economics}} Redcliffe-Maud House at the University College Annexe known as "Stavertonia" in North Oxford is named in honour of him.{{cite web | url=https://www.univ.ox.ac.uk/news/a-short-history-of-stavertonia/ | title=A short history of Stavertonia | publisher=University College, Oxford | accessdate=6 April 2022 }}

Books

Redcliffe-Maud, John, Experiences of an Optimist: The Memoirs of John Redcliffe-Maud. London: Hamish Hamilton, 1981. ({{ISBN|0-241-10569-2}}.){{cite journal| url=http://www.lrb.co.uk/v03/n14/ch-sisson/the-company-he-keeps | volume=3 | issue=14 | date=6 August 1981 | pages=15–16 | title=The company he keeps | first=C.H. | last=Sisson | journal=London Review of Books | accessdate=19 January 2015 }}
Redcliffe-Maud, Lord, & Wood, Bruce, English Local Government Reformed. Oxford University Press, 1974. {{ISBN|0-198-88091-X}}.

References

External links

{{cite ODNB|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/31427|title=Maud, John Primatt Redcliffe, Baron Redcliffe-Maud (1906–1982)|last=Armstrong|first=Robert|year=2004|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/31427|accessdate=30 May 2009}}
[http://archives.lse.ac.uk/TreeBrowse.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&field=RefNo&key=REDCLIFFE-MAUD Catalogue of the Redcliffe-Maud papers] at the [https://web.archive.org/web/20070618035533/http://www.lse.ac.uk/library/archive/Default.htm Archives Division] of the London School of Economics.

{{s-bef | before=Sir Maurice Holmes | as=Permanent Secretary of the
Board of Education}}

{{s-ttl | title=Permanent Secretary of the
Ministry of Education | years=1945–1952}}

{{s-ttl | title=Permanent Secretary of the
Ministry of Fuel and Power
(Ministry of Power from 1957) | years=1952–1958}}

{{s-ttl | title=British High Commissioner to
South Africa | years=1959–1961}}

{{s-aft | after=Himself as British Ambassador to South Africa}}

{{s-bef | before=Himself as British High Commissioner to South Africa}}

{{s-ttl | title=British Ambassador to South Africa | years=1961–1963}}

{{s-ttl | title=Master of University College, Oxford | years=1963–1976}}

Category:Civil servants from Bristol

Category:Ambassadors and High Commissioners of the United Kingdom to South Africa

Category:Commissioners of the Bechuanaland Protectorate

Category:1906 births