Maurice Baring OBE was an English man of letters who worked as a dramatist, poet, novelist, translator, and essayist, as well as a travel writer and war correspondent with a focus on Russia. During World War I, Baring worked for the Intelligence Corps and the Royal Air Force. Baring was the eighth child and fifth son of Edward Charles Baring, first Baron Revelstoke, of the Baring banking dynasty, and his wife Louisa Emily Charlotte Bulteel, second Earl Grey's granddaughter. Born in Mayfair, he attended Eton College and Trinity College, Cambridge. After a failed diplomatic career, he traveled extensively, mainly in Russia, where he lived in 1905-2006. At the outbreak of World War, I, he joined the Royal Flying Corps and worked as an assistant to David Henderson and Hugh Trenchard in France. Throughout the war, he wrote with Lady Juliet Duff, the widow of Sir Robin Duff, 2nd Baronet of Vaynol, who was killed on October 16, 1914, near Oostnieuwekirke while fighting in the 2nd Life Guards. The letters were ultimately published under the title Dear Animated Bust: Letters to Lady Juliet Duff.