New Britain. Considered by many to be rather eccentric, he was also a successful tactician, a skilful organiser, and highly regarded for his treatment of the soldiers under his command. Early life Born Maurice Neligan in Tavistock, Devon, England, on 4 October 1882, he was a son of Canon John West Neligan and his wife Charlotte, Putland. His elder brother, the Right Reverend Moore Neligan, was the Anglican Bishop of Auckland, New Zealand, from 1903 to 1910. Maurice attended Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Ipswich, and Bedford Grammar School. On 18 February 1905, he was married to a divorcee, Frances Jane Wyatt, in London. In 1908, he was brought before the courts in bankruptcy proceedings, owing some £5,500. During the hearing he stated that he had been at sea during the period 1898–1902, and had not been working since he returned, although he had visited Ceylon late the previous year looking for work. He and his wife had one daughter. He was enlisted in the Royal Horse Artillery in September 1910, having lowered his age and given Auckland as his place of birth. He served as a soldier for a year before leaving his wife and child at their Park Lane home in London and travelling to Sydney, Australia. In the remaining years before the outbreak of World War I he worked as a clerk at a sugar mill weighbridge in Proserpine, Queensland, and also lived at Kelly's Club Hotel in Brandon, where he formed a close connection to the publican's family. World War I Neligan was enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) on 20 August 1914 at Townsville, Queensland, under the name Maurice Wilder, again giving Auckland as his place of birth. The AIF was established as Australia's expeditionary force to fight in the war, as the Citizens' Forces were restricted to home defence per the Defence Act (1903). He had first attempted to enlist under his true name and age, and had told the clerk he was married with a child. When told that younger unmarried men were volunteering in great numbers, and that his services would not be required, he merely joined a queue in front of a different clerk, gave the name Wilder and claimed he was a bachelor. With the rank of private he was allotted to the Queensland-raised 9th Battalion of the 3rd Brigade, which was part of the 1st Division, and was given