Henry Evans Maude


Henry Evans Maude, was a British civil servant, historian and anthropologist.

Life and career

Maude was born in Bankipore, India. Educated at Highgate School from 1921 to 1925, and Jesus College, Cambridge, Maude represented India at rifle-shooting in 1926.
He spent the years 1929–48 working as a civil servant and administrator in various Pacific Islands, in particular the British colony of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands, serving as land commissioner before WWII then, after the Japanese occupation of the Gilbert Islands, as Resident Commissioner from 1946 to 1949. From 1948 to 1957, he worked for the South Pacific Commission.
From 1957 to 1961, he was a Research Fellow at the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, which is part of the Australian National University in Canberra. He has published widely on aspects of Pacific Islands history, was a co-founder of the Journal of Pacific History, and played an important role in establishing the Pacific Manuscripts Bureau.

Personal life

He was the husband of Honor Courtney Maude, a British-Australian authority on Oceanic string figures. She predeceased him, dying in 2001 in Canberra, aged 95.

Death and legacy

Maude died, aged 100, on 4 November 2006. The bulk of Maude's personal papers are held at the Barr Smith Library at the University of Adelaide, where an extensive set of pages devoted to his life and work can be found. He published the work of Sir Arthur Grimble.