Maurice was born on 12 December 1912 in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe to Sigmund and Annie née Bernstein and he had three younger brothers. His youngest brother Rufus was killed serving in 44 (Rhodesia) Squadron six months later.

Maurice was educated at Milton School and also attended the local Hebrew school. On 16 July 1934 he travelled to England and worked as a salesman. He attested into the Royal Air Force in July 1940.

Maurice was the pilot of Manchester I L7489 which departed from RAF Skellingthorpe at 21.47 on a bombing raid to Warnemünde. The Manchester crossed the Danish west coast north of the island of Sylt and flew on to the Heinkel works at Warnemünde. The attack was successfully carried out from 1500 feet even though flak was intense. After the bomb run the crew were not able to close the bomb doors and with these open it would not be possible to reach base. Course was set for Sweden via Denmark. The Manchester managed to climb to 4500 feet but was not able to maintain the altitude even with engines running at full power. The starboard engine and wiring caught fire and could not be put out, and when they approached the island of Møn they were down to 2000 ft when Maurice ordered the crew to bale out. He died when the aircraft crashed.

During the morning the crew was found by the Danish police scattered over Møn and brought to the police station in Stege.
 
P/O Harald Frederick Avery RCAF was 06:30 found on Nøbøllegaard farm near Stege.
At 07:00 Sgt John Pearce and Sgt Sydney Garbutt were found at a farm belonging to Farmer Jantsen, Lerbæk, Askeby. At 07:30 Sgt Donald Broadhead was found at a farm near Hjelm and at the same time Sgt Kenneth G.R. Johnson was found on a farm in Frenderup.
The last crew member to be found was Sgt Richard Solomon who was located at 12:15 in Frenderup.
Later on the same day the aircrew were handed over to Leutnant Detmar from the Luftwaffe based at Avnø airfield. From there they were sent to Stalag Luft III and Stalag Luft VI. They all returned to England after the war.