Maxwell becomes Quartermaster-General of the BEF

On 27 January 1915 Lieutenant-General Ronald Charles Maxwell became Quartermaster-General of the British Expeditionary Force. He took over the post vacated by General William Robertson, appointed chief of staff two days earlier. From then on Maxwell was responsible for the supply and transport of the whole British army in France. He should not be confused with General John Maxwell, who commanded the British forces in Egypt.

Maxwell was born in 1852 and was an officer of the Royal Engineers. He was thus over sixty, much older than Robertson and than most of the generals in France. He had joined the force in September 1914, during the fighting on the Aisne, as the newly appointed Inspector-General of Communications. In that post he ran the army’s rear: the ports of disembarkation, the bases, the depots and the rail movement of supplies to the front.

At the end of 1914 Maxwell devoted much attention to the ports. He foresaw that the force, growing with successive reinforcements, would soon need supplies for more than 700,000 men and nearly 250,000 horses. Ever more cargo had to pass through the Channel ports, and the French were reluctant to hand over further quays to the British. In mid-January 1915, instead of the access to Dunkirk he had sought, the British were given the use of Cherbourg.

He was succeeded as Inspector-General of Communications by General F. T. Clayton. Maxwell was Quartermaster-General for almost three years, while the force grew into a huge army made up of several field armies. Not everything went smoothly. In 1916, when the railways and ports could not keep up with deliveries, transport was taken out of his hands and entrusted to a civilian railway expert, Eric Geddes. In time Maxwell lost the confidence of some senior officers, and at the end of 1917 he left France. Ill health was given as the reason, and the Commander-in-Chief, Field Marshal Douglas Haig, wrote that the Army Council had decided to replace him with a younger man. His successor was General Travers Clarke. Maxwell died in 1924.