Maurice was born in January 1912 in Wandsworth, London to Polish born Phillip and Lena nee Rosenthal and he had six siblings. In 1939 the family lived at 2 Hillborough Road, Luton where they ran a family owned costume and furrier shop.

Maurice enlisted after May 1940 and trained as a navigator/air bomber. Whitley Z6878 departed from RAF Ashbourne to undertake a training flight. At 21.32 hrs the aircraft was two and a half hours into the flight when the aircraft crashed in the Goole area. On impact the aircraft caught fire and all on board were killed. The exact cause of the crash was not discovered although the crew were found to be wearing their parachutes and that one of the propeller blades was feathered suggesting that one of the engines had probably failed earlier in the flight. Had the crew completed their training at 42 OTU they would have been posted into an squadron operating SOE flights within No.38 Group. Notably this was the very last fatal Whitley accident to have occurred in Yorkshire.

A/G, Hector Clayton Chaffey, 798757
B/A, Daniel Hannan, 1673056
Pilot, George Pigott, 1564236
W/Op, Alan Frederick West, 1811047