Maurice was born on 23 June 1894 in Leeds, Yorkshire to Latvia born parents Solomon, a wool merchant, and Sarah nee Narunsky. Solomon married Sarah in 1880 in Leeds and they became naturalised British citizens in 1886 and then went on to have eighteen children. Both Solomon and Sarah moved to South Africa where they both died in the 1930’s.

Maurice trained as a doctor at the University of Leeds medical school and qualified in 1925. In 1927, he was working at a hospital in Durban, South Africa before returning to England in 1928. He married Ena James in 1932 in Chippenham, Wiltshire and their son Adrian was born in 1933. In 1939, they lived at 43 Market Place in Chippenham where Maurice was listed as a medical practitioner.

Maurice enlisted as a surgeon into the Merchant Navy in 1939 and was serving on the S.S. Svend Foyn when he was killed. On 19 March 1943, the ship collided with an iceberg 70 miles south of Cape Farewell, off the coast of Greenland and foundered two days later with the loss of 43 out of the 195 crew and passengers aboard. The ship was sailing as vessel of the vice commodore in convoy HX-229A from New York to Liverpool with a cargo of fuel oil.