John Redcliffe-Maud, Baron Redcliffe-Maud

{{Short description|British civil servant and diplomat (1906–1982)}} {{Redirect|John Maud|the bishop|John Maud (bishop)}} {{EngvarB|date=September 2013}} {{Use dmy dates|date=January 2024}} __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 |birth_name = 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 |resting_place = 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}}<ref name="LG-19670711"/> (3 February 1906 – 20 November 1982) was a British civil servant and diplomat.<ref>{{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 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite ODNB | doi = 10.1093/ref:odnb/31427| title = The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography| year = 2004}}</ref> He headed the Royal Commission on Local Government in England, which published the Redcliffe-Maud Report, a proposal on local government reorganization, in 1969. He was High Commissioner to the Union of South Africa from 1959 to 1961 and Master of University College, Oxford from 1963 to 1976.

==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.<ref>''Oxford University Calendar 1932'', Oxford : Oxford University Press, 1932, pp. 263, 312</ref> 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 University<ref>''Oxford University Calendar 1932'', Oxford : Oxford University Press, 1932, p.344</ref> where he was awarded an A.B. in 1929.<ref name="Who's Who 1965">''Who's Who, 1965'', London : A. & C. Black, 1965, p.2063</ref> From 1929 to 1932 he was a junior research fellow of University College, Oxford and from 1932 to 1939 fellow (Praelector in Politics)<ref>''Oxford University Calendar 1935'', Oxford : Oxford University Press, 1935, p.274</ref> 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, 1938–1939.<ref name="Who's Who 1965"/>

==Civil service== During World War II, he was Master of Birkbeck College, London (1939–1943)<ref>{{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=}}</ref> and was also based at Reading Gaol, working for the Ministry of Food. He was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1942,<ref>{{London Gazette| issue=35586 |page=2489 |supp=y | date=5 June 1942 }}</ref> and after the war he worked at the Ministry of Education (1945–1952), rising to permanent secretary there, and then at the Ministry of Fuel and Power until 1958. He was made a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in 1946,<ref>{{London Gazette| issue=37598 |page=2759 | date=4 June 1946 |supp=y }}</ref> and was raised to a Knight Grand Cross in 1955.<ref>{{London Gazette| issue=40366 | supp=y |page=3 | date=31 December 1954 }}</ref> ''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 war.

==The Maud Committee== [[File:England RedcliffeMaud.png|thumb|upright|left|Local government in England as proposed by the 1969 Redcliffe-Maud Report]] In March 1964, Maud was appointed by Minister for Housing and Local Government 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.<ref name="Maud Committee">"Management of Local Government", Committee on the Management of Local Government, HMSO, 1967.</ref> 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<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=44349 |date=23 June 1967 |page=7032}}</ref> to become Baron Redcliffe-Maud, of the City and County of Bristol in 1967.<ref name="LG-19670711">{{London Gazette| issue=44362 |page=7641 | date=11 July 1967 }}</ref>

[[File:Entrance to Redcliffe-Maud House, University College annex, Oxford.jpg|thumb|upright|Main entrance of the Redcliffe-Maud House at the University College Annexe "Stavertonia" in North Oxford]] thumb|Redcliffe-Maud House in North Oxford, named in his honour<ref name="stavertonia" /> 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.<ref name="Conservative reaction">{{cite book| first=Bruce | last=Wood | title=The Process of Local Government Reform 1966–74 | publisher=George Allen & Unwin | year=1976 | pages=74–75 }}</ref>

==Retirement== He retired as Master of University College in 1976, to be succeeded by Lord Goodman. His 1973 portrait by Ruskin Spear can be seen in the National Portrait Gallery, London.<ref>{{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 }}</ref><ref>{{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}}</ref> 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''.<ref>John Bridcut, ''Britten's Children'', Faber and Faber, 2006.{{ISBN|0-571-22839-9}}</ref>

==Death and legacy== John Redcliffe-Maud is buried in Holywell Cemetery, Oxford. His archive is held by the London School of Economics Library.<ref>{{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}}</ref> Redcliffe-Maud House at the University College Annexe known as "Stavertonia" in North Oxford is named in honour of him.<ref name="stavertonia">{{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 }}</ref>

==Books== * Redcliffe-Maud, John, ''Experiences of an Optimist: The Memoirs of John Redcliffe-Maud''. London: Hamish Hamilton, 1981. ({{ISBN|0-241-10569-2}}.)<ref>{{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 }}</ref> * Redcliffe-Maud, Lord, & Wood, Bruce, ''English Local Government Reformed''. Oxford University Press, 1974. {{ISBN|0-198-88091-X}}.

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== {{commons category|John Redcliffe-Maud, Baron Redcliffe-Maud}} * {{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-start}} {{s-gov}} {{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-aft | after=Sir Gilbert Flemming}} {{s-bef | before=Sir Donald Fergusson}} {{s-ttl | title=Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Fuel and Power (Ministry of Power from 1957) | years=1952–1958}} {{s-aft | after=Dennis Proctor}} {{s-dip}} {{s-bef | before=Percivale Liesching}} {{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-aft | after=Sir Hugh Stephenson}} {{s-aca}} {{s-bef | before=Arthur Goodhart}} {{s-ttl | title=Master of University College, Oxford | years=1963–1976}} {{s-aft | after=Arnold Goodman}} {{s-end}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Redcliffe-Maud, John Redcliffe-Maud, Baron}} 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 Category:1982 deaths Category:People educated at Summer Fields School Category:People educated at Eton College Category:Alumni of New College, Oxford Category:Harvard University alumni Category:Fellows of University College, Oxford Category:Masters of Birkbeck, University of London Category:Life peers created by Elizabeth II Category:Masters of University College, Oxford Category:Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath Category:Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Category:Permanent secretaries of the Ministry of Education Category:Permanent secretaries of the Ministry of Power Category:Civil servants in the Ministry of Food Category:Civil servants in the Ministry of Reconstruction Category:1950s in Bechuanaland Protectorate Category:1960s in Bechuanaland Protectorate Category:1960s in South Africa Category:Burials at Holywell Cemetery Category:Diplomatic peers