Edward Maitland (27 October 1824 - 2 October 1897), English humanitarian writer, was born at Ipswich and was educated at Caius College, Cambridge.[1] The son of Charles David Maitland, perpetual curate of St James's Chapel, Brighton, he was intended for the Church, but his religious views did not permit him to take holy orders. For some years he lived abroad, first in California and then as a commissioner of Crown lands in Australia. After his return to England in 1857 he took up an advanced humanitarian position, and claimed to have acquired a new sense by which be was able to discern the spiritual condition of other people. He became a member of the Theosophical Society and associated with Dr. Anna Kingsford (1846-1888), one of the first female British physicians and supporter of women's rights, animal rights, vegetarianism and, who, besides being one of the pioneers of higher education for women, had become a student of Theosophy; with her he brought out Keys of the Creeds (1875), The Perfect Way: or the Finding of Christ (1882), and founded the Hermetic Society in 1884. After her death he founded the Esoteric Christian Union in 1891, and wrote her Life and Letters (1896).