Maurice Pascal Alers Hankey, 1st Baron Hankey, (1 April 1877 – 26 January 1963) was a British civil servant who gained prominence as the first Cabinet Secretary and later made the rare transition from the civil service to ministerial office. He is best known as the highly-efficient top aide to Prime Minister David Lloyd George and the War Cabinet, which directed Britain during the First World War. In the estimation of his biographer John F. Naylor, Hankey held to the "certainties of a late Victorian imperialist, whose policies sought to maintain British domination abroad and to avoid as far as possible British entanglement within Europe. His patriotism stands inviolable, but his sensitivity to processes of historical change proved limited". Naylor found, "Hankey did not altogether grasp the virulence of fascism... except as a military threat to Britain; nor did he ever quite comprehend the changing face of domestic politics which Labour's emergence as a party of government entailed.... In these shortcomings Hankey was typical of his generation and background; that his responsibility was greater lay in the fact that he was better informed than nearly any of his contemporaries". Personal life The third son of R. A. Hankey, Maurice Hankey was born at Biarritz in 1877 and educated at Rugby School. He joined the Royal Marine Artillery, was promoted to captain and served in successive roles, including as coastal defence analyst in the War Division of the Naval Intelligence Department (1902–1906). His youngest brother, Donald Hankey, was a soldier best known for a series of essays that he wrote while he served on the Western Front in World War I. Donald died in action at Battle of the Somme. Around Christmas 1902, Hankey met Adeline de Smidt. They married in September 1903. The couple had a strong and supportive relationship, with Adeline frequently accompanying him to social engagements with prominent figures, and to significant events such as the Paris Peace Conference and the Genoa Conference. They had four children: Robert (born 1905), Ursula (born 1909), Christopher (born 1911) and Henry (born 1914). A fifth child was stillborn in 1916. The Hankey family moved several times while their children were young, living in Malta for a year in 1907 before eventually settling in Highstead near Limpsfield, Surrey. Lord Hankey died in 1963, aged 85, and was succeeded in his barony by his eldest son, Robert. Career in government In 1908, Hankey