Background
Maxwell was born in Arbroath and began his career as an amateur playing for Hearts Strollers, Arbroath, Heart of Midlothian and Dundee whilst working as a solicitor"s clerk.
cricketer association football player
Maxwell was born in Arbroath and began his career as an amateur playing for Hearts Strollers, Arbroath, Heart of Midlothian and Dundee whilst working as a solicitor"s clerk.
He finished as the top scorer in the Scottish Football League Division One in the 1901-1902 season, and later, while at Bristol City, he was the Second Division topscorer with 27 goals in the 1905-1906 season.
Born in Arbroath, he played for hometown club Arbroath, Dundee, Heart of Midlothian, Stoke, Sunderland, Third Lanark and Bristol City. He also gained one cap for the Scotland national team Maxwell later coached the Belgian national team
He was persuaded by Stoke manager Bill Rowley to become professional and he did so joining the Potters in the summer of 1895.
He initially had to bide his time as fellow Scottish forwards Billy Dickson and Tommy Hyslop were established in the first team Following the departure of both Dickson and Hyslop in the summer of 1896 Maxwell became Stoke"s main attacking threat and he became the clubs first prolific goalscorer.
He finished up as top goalscorer for five seasons in a row, hitting 16 in 1896-1897, 11 in 1897-1898, 19 in 1898-1899, 11 in 1899–1900 and 16 in 1900-1901. Maxwell was not a typical 1890s inside-forward as most relied on strength and power, Maxwell used his pace to sprint away from defenders and most of his goals came in one-on-one situations with the goalkeeper.
Maxwell was renowned for his gentlemanly conduct on the pitch but on one occasion playing against West Bromwich Albion in October 1899 he lost his temper with Albion"s Abraham Jones and the pair traded blows and were both sent-official
Maxwell received a two-week suspension during with time he played in a benefit match for Sheffield United"s Arthur Watson. He suffered a serious knee injury in that match and missed a further ten weeks. After a season back in Scotland he moved to Sunderland and then to Millwall Athletic where he scored 34 goals in 54 Southern League games.
Maxwell retired in 1909 and decided to move to Belgium to take up a coaching role with the Belgium national team
Outside of football, Maxwell played a single cricket match for Staffordshire in the 1904 Minor Counties Championship against Dorset. In Staffordshires" first innings, he was dismissed for 4 runs by Hubert Greenhill, becoming one of Greenhill"s 8 victims in the innings.
In their second innings, he opened the batting, scoring 18 unbeaten runs.