Maurice Friend, the eldest son of Ephraim and Charlotte Friend, was born on 6th January 1898 in Burgh, Suffolk. In 1901, the family was living at Gazebo Farm Cottage, Woodbridge, where Ephraim was a horseman on the farm. By 1904, they had moved to Potash Farm, Melton, and in 1911, Ephraim was still a horseman and Maurice was working on a milk round.

Maurice joined the Navy as a Boy 2nd Class on 6th July 1914 and was posted to HMS Vivid 1, a shore base for training. His service record at the time gives his occupation as a gardener and states he was born in 1897 rather than 1898. On 2nd August 1914, Maurice was sent to HMS Impregnable, a training ship moored in Devonport Dockyard. While there, according to the date of birth on his service record, Maurice turned eighteen. He signed up for twelve years’ service and was made an Ordinary Seaman. A month later, on 4th November, while at sea on the light cruiser HMS Phaeton, he was promoted to Able Seaman. Maurice was transferred to HMS Pembroke, another shore base, for training later that month. He was back at sea by 26th April 1916.

Maurice joined HMS Shannon, an armoured cruiser, and a month later, on 31st May 1916, was involved in the Battle of Jutland. He continued as a crew member on HMS Shannon until 15th June 1918. Their time was spent patrolling the North Sea looking for commerce raiders or fruitlessly seeking German warships that, due to the Battle of Jutland, stayed in port for practically the remainder of the war.

His next posting was to HMS Dolphin, a training base for submarines. On 10th September, Maurice joined the submarine depot ship HMS Maidstone. He was to serve in submarines for the remainder of his career in the Royal Navy (which ended in 1927).

For his war service, Maurice received the 1914-15 Star, the British War and Victory Medals.