Researching William Maxwell

He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin. He claimed to have entered the British Army and seen service in the Peninsular War and the Battle of Waterloo, but this is generally believed to be untrue. Afterwards he took orders, but was deprived of his living for non-residence.

His novels, O'Hara (1825), and Stories from Waterloo (1834) started the school of rollicking military fiction, which culminated in the novels of Charles Lever. Maxwell also wrote a Life of the Duke of Wellington (1839–1841), and a History of the Irish Rebellion of 1798 (1845) - written in a spirit hostile to the rebels, and accompanied with similarly hostile illustrations by George Cruikshank.

Maxwell married Mary Dobbin, daughter of Thomas Dobbin.

He played for hometown club Arbroath, Dundee, Heart of Midlothian, Stoke, Sunderland, Third Lanark and Bristol City. He also gained one cap for the Scotland national team. He finished as the top scorer in the Scottish Football League Division One in the 1901–02 season, and later, while at Bristol City, he was the Second Division topscorer with 27 goals in the 1905–06 season. Maxwell later coached the Belgian national team.

Born in Glasgow, Maxwell largely grew up in Paisley, but returned to Glasgow when he was ten, and became an apprentice coachbuilder two years later. He successfully completed the apprenticeship, having also studied in his spare time at the Glasgow School of Design, and travelled around the country, looking for work.

By the mid-1860s, Maxwell had returned to Glasgow, where he became active in the local trade union movement. He moved to Edinburgh early in the 1870s, and there he became active in the St. Cuthbert's Co-operative Society. In 1878, he was elected as its secretary, serving for four years. This led him to prominence in the Scottish Co-operative Wholesale Society (SCWS), serving on its board from 1880, and as president from 1908 onwards.

Maxwell was interested in co-operative production, and visited the United States in 1884 to study developments there. On his return to Scotland, he led the construction of a series of factories in Shieldhall, making goods for the SCWS. He served repeatedly as president of the Co-operative Congress, and in 1907 became president of the International Co-operative Alliance, serving until 1921.

Maxwell was also interested in the political representation of the co-operative movement, and he stood unsuccessfully as a Liberal-Labour candidate in Glasgow Tradeston at the 1900 UK general election. In 1910, he wrote the History of Co-operation in Scotland. He was knighted in 1919, and retired from all his posts two years later, due to poor health. He relocated to Rothesay, where he lived until his death in 1929.