He was promoted to lieutenant on 26 January 1902,[4] and returned home with his battalion in October that year, after the end of the war three months earlier.

[5] On 19 August 1911 Maitland was attached to the Royal Engineers' Air Battalion and later that year he was appointed Officer Commanding No.

Impressed by the kite-balloons being used by the French, he returned to Britain to promote their use to the War Office, and was appointed head of the kite balloon school which was established at Roehampton.

On 18 November 1908, he flew with Mr C C Turner and Prof A E Gaudron[7] in a balloon named the Mammoth from Crystal Palace in England to Meeki Derevi, near Novo Aleksandrovsk in Russia[8] (now Zarasai in Lithuania).

On 24 August 1921 Maitland was killed when the R38 airship on which he was a passenger suffered structural failure and broke up in mid air over the Humber.