Ralph Waldo Maitland was born on 28 February 1904. He qualified as an architect in the early 1930s and was elected an Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects (ARIBA) in 1931. However, it is not known where or with whom he trained. With Arthur Knyvett Lee and Philip Archibald Ledward he was in partnership as Waldo Maitland & Partners, Lighting Consultants at 32 Bloomsbury Street, London. The partnership was dissolved in December 1934 but Maitland continue to run the firm with the name unchanged. A photograph of an interior lighting scheme designed by Waldo Maitland & Partners is illustrated in The Modern Home Its Decoration & Equipment by Roger Smithells and S. John Wood (1936 p. 36).
Maitland's address was given as 32 Fitzroy Street, London 1939. He died in Surrey in 1992