Gavin Maxwell FRSL FZS FRGS (15 July 19147 September 1969) was a Scottish naturalist and author, best known for his non-fiction writing and his work with otters. He became most famous for Ring of Bright Water (1960), which described his experiences raising otters from Iraq and West Africa on the west coast of Scotland. Ring of Bright Water sold more than two million copies, and was made into a film starring Bill Travers and Virginia McKenna in 1969. One of his otters from Iraq was of a previously unknown sub-species, which was subsequently named after Maxwell. His other books described shark hunting in the Hebrides, his childhood, and his travels in Sicily, Iraq and North Africa.
Early life
Maxwell was born on 15 July 1914 at the House of Elrig, near the small village of Elrig, Port William, in Wigtownshire, now Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. Maxwell's relatives lived in the area until the death of his nephew, Sir Michael Maxwell, 9th Baronet, in 2021. The family's ancient estate and grounds were associated with nearby Monreith House. Maxwell wrote about his childhood in the book House of Elrig.
Gavin Maxwell was the youngest child of Lieutenant-Colonel Aymer Edward Maxwell and Lady Mary Percy, the fifth daughter of the 7th Duke of Northumberland. The couple married in London in 1909. Gavin had three siblings: a sister, Christian Maxwell (1910–1980), and two brothers — Aymer Maxwell (1911–1987), who succeeded as Sir Aymer Maxwell, 8th Baronet, in 1937, and Eustace Maxwell (1913–1971). His paternal grandfather, Sir Herbert Maxwell, 7th Baronet, was a distinguished archaeologist, politician, painter, writer and natural historian.
Maxwell's father was killed before Gavin was three months old. Lt Col Aymer Maxwell, who previously served the British Army in the Lovat Scouts and Grenadier Guards, was redeployed to lead the Collingwood Battalion of the Royal Naval Division against the Imperial German Army in the Siege of Antwerp on 6 October 1914. He was hit by a shell two days after his arrival, and died from his injuries the next day, 9 October 1914, and the day before Antwerp capitulated to the German invasion. Lt Col Aymer Maxwell was buried in Schoonselhof cemetery.
The Maxwell children were brought up by Lady Mary Maxwell, who never remarried and was thus widowed for over 50 years. Gavin lacked a father figure, but had three unmarried aunts, who had a continual presence in his childhood.
Maxwell, with this two brothers, developed a passion for natural history from early childhood, encouraged partly by his grandfather Herbert Maxwell, but more so by aunt Lady Muriel Percy. He was composing nature notes from the age of 5. He had an assortment of pet birds - jackdaw, heron, owl - and avidly read books relating to animals. Aunt Muriel converted his father's gun-room into a natural history classroom. The three boys would explore the area around Elrig, collecting specimens. In Gavin's case he focused on bird's eggs, butterflies and moths. From early years, Gavin developed a better relationship with his eldest brother Aymer than with Eustace or Christian, starting with their shared natural history collection but leading on to a shared outlook on life. He described themselves as being like twins, unable to be actively happy without the other.
Catholic Apostolic Church and later views on religion Gavin Maxwell was brought up in the Catholic Apostolic Church (CAC), of which his mother, deceased father, and aunts were dedicated supporters. In doctrine the CAC was generally close to the Church of England, but the CAC was distinguished by the premillennialist belief in an imminent Second Coming of the Messiah, the gifts of prophecy and speaking in tongues. At one stage he lived in the house next to the Apostles' Chapel, the CAC's main church, which is still retained in preparation for the Second Coming. Gavin Maxwell noted the impression that this religious fervour had on his childhood, during Sunday church services which could last four hours. Maxwell's experiences are a source for this book, as one of only two eye witness accounts of the CAC's twentieth century services.
Later in life, his views on organised religion became apparent when he highlighted corruption within the Roman Catholic Church and the clergy in Sicily, through his book The Ten Pains of Death. His friend Marjorie Linklater wrote to Maxwell to complain about this portrayal, and he replied that he did not believe in a "conceptual religion" or its rituals. This book is mostly interviews, his criticism of the Church were thus implied.
Education, illness and relationship with mother Maxwell did not go to school until he was 10 years old. At that point he had hardly met another child outside of his own family. Maxwell's education took place at a succession of preparatory and public schools, starting with the sporty Heddon Court School, East Barnet; then St Cyprian's School, Eastbourne, where he found encouragement for his interest in natural history but made him so miserable that he left mid-term; Maxwell didn't use the school's real name, instead referred to the school as St. Wulfric, the satirical name used by Cyril Connolly in his autobiography Enemies of Promise. Hurst Court School in Ore, which he liked; and finally Stowe School. Later in life he stayed in regular contact with Stowe, sponsoring a creative writing prize there. One winner in 1966 was a 15 year old Sir Richard Branson, who consequently became acquainted with Maxwell and credits Maxwell with helping his career.
On his 16th birthday, Maxwell fell ill with Henoch's purpura, now known as Henoch-Schönlein purpura (HSP). This auto-immune disease usually resolves in a few weeks without complications, but in Maxwell's case it came close to killing him. The King's Physician was summoned, who provided no optimism for his fee of 50 guineas (£52.50) , and Maxwell was given the Last Sacrament by one of the few remaining CAC priests.Formally The Administration of the Communion to the Sick, The Liturgy and Other Divine Offices of the Church, Catholic Apostolic Church, London: H. J. Glaisher, 1925.
His mother, Lady Mary Maxwell, to whom he was particularly close, nursed him back to health, with two years of convalescence at Albury, Surrey, an estate owned by her father, the 7th Duke of Northumberland and where the Maxwell family would traditionally spend winters. Twenty five years later, Gavin Maxwell wrote A Reed Shaken by the Wind, describing his time with the Marsh Arabs. The front dedication page is blank, apart from the following text: "For M.M. Τροφεία". The last word, tropheia, in Classical Greek means the wages paid to a nurse, particularly of a child. But it is also a metalepsis, a metaphor for the perpetual debt a child owes to their parents for their efforts in raising the child to adulthood.
This characterised an enduring bond between mother and her youngest child, to the point of him being, in Gavin Maxwell's words, "suffocated by love". She provided significant financial support to Maxwell throughout her life, funding many of his projects. After Gavin Maxwell left the army, Lady Mary's London residence was close to Maxwell's various homes, and they frequently visited each other until she died in 1965. Lady Mary was buried in St Peter's and St Paul's Church, 150 metres from Lower Northfield, their main Albury home, in the same Anglican graveyard as most of the Apostles and other leaders of the Catholic Apostolic Church, a place sometimes dubbed "Resurrection Corner". This in part referred to CAC members lurking in the graveyard, hoping for some sign, allegedly including Maxwell's uncle Lord Eustace Percy.
University, wartime and early years as artist Oxford University and first expedition During the two years that Maxwell was ill, he was taken out of the school system, but he received tuition from private tutors. This allowed him to obtain the School Certificate, the examination that would facilitate entry into university. In Raven Seek Thy Brother, Maxwell relates how family pressure led him to take a degree in Estate Management at Hertford College, Oxford from 1933 to 1937, when as the family's youngest son he was never destined to manage an estate, and for which he had no interest either. Instead he spent much of his university time pursuing sporting and leisure activities, particularly game shooting, instead of studying. He cheated his way through the first year exams but scraped though the final examinations honestly, albeit with a Third Class degree, having crammed the entire three-year course in six weeks.
After leaving Oxford, Maxwell spent a brief and unhappy period as an agricultural equipment salesman, and then tried his hand at journalism for publications such as The Field.
In June 1938, at the suggestion of Sir Peter Scott, Gavin Maxwell went on his first and solo natural history expedition. He went to Vadsø, East Finnmark to study the migration and breeding patterns of Steller's eider, a small Arctic sea duck, that can be found around Varangerfjord. He also studied the Lesser white-fronted goose, which was later to be one of the visitors to Scott's wildlife reserve in Slimbridge. He made a second visit to Vadsø in June 1939, at that time a remote and difficult to reach part of Norway, but returned early, with the onset of World War II. These expeditions were Maxwell's first forays into the future life to which he aspired, though he did not write about this experience at length: there is just a single page in Raven Seek thy Brother.
Wartime service Maxwell joined the Scots Guards on 2 September 1939, the day after the German invasion of Poland at the start of World War II. Initially he was assigned to their training depots around London and Surrey. He suffered from bouts of ill health, including a series of duodenal ulcer attacks, which reduced his operational usefulness.
Maxwell was seconded in September 1941 to the Special Operations Executive (SOE) but fractured an ankle in a parachute training exercise from a captive balloon: he was so paralysed by fear that he forgot his training, and landed on straight legs rather than buckling on to the floor. As a result from January 1942 he served as an SOE instructor, rather than being deployed on operations. His activities took place at a series of bases around the Isle of Skye, Arisaig and Knoydart, which began his involvement with this area of the Scottish Highlands.
His task was training SOE agents, many drawn from Resistance groups from mainland Europe, in the use of small arms warfare. He was promoted to the rank of Acting Major in 1943 to supervise three SOE training locations around Arisaig. In November 1944, when it was clear that SOE's wartime endeavours were coming to a close, he applied to be invalided out of the Army. This was granted with effect of 24 February 1945, and with the honorific rank of Major.
One of the curious aspects about Maxwell's personality, normally resistant to being made to follow orders and disciplined rituals, was how well he adapted to army and SOE life. He was given a purposeful role, for which he was well suited, often enjoyed, and the SOE was a part of the military war effort that was more tolerant of unusual personalities. It was the only period of relatively conventional employment that was an unalloyed success for Maxwell.
Shark fishing from Soay 1945-1948
In 1943 Maxwell borrowed a yacht used by the SOE to make his first visit to the island of Soay off Skye, and fell in love with the place that he called his Avalon. The following year he became the landowner of Soay, purchased for £900, thanks to a loan from his mother.