Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

An interesting Palestine emergency C.B.E. group of six awarded to H.M. Consul-General C. H. A. Marriott, late Royal Navy, who served on Admiral Sir John Jellicoe’s staff in the Iron Duke at Jutland

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, C.B.E. (Civil) Commander’s 2nd type neck badge, silver-gilt and enamel; 1914-15 Star (Asst. Clk. C. H. A. Marriott, R.N.); British War and Victory Medals (Payr. S. Lt. C. H. A. Marriott, R.N.); Coronation 1937; Coronation 1953, mounted as worn where applicable, together with a set of related miniature dress medals (excluding the C.B.E.), minor contact wear and polished, nearly very fine and better (11) £500-600

C.B.E. London Gazette 9 June 1949.

Awarded for services as H.M’s Consul-General in Haifa.

Cyril Herbert Alfred Marriott was born in Chambly, Quebec, in September 1897, the son of a clergyman, and entered the Royal Navy as an Assistant Clerk in July 1915, after attending Trent College. Joining the battleship H.M.S. Iron Duke as additional for duties in the Admiral Sir John Jellicoe’s office, in August of the same year, he was advanced to Clerk and remained similarly employed until early 1917, thereby witnessing action at Jutland, when the Iron Duke gained significant hits on the enemy battleship Konig, in addition to a number of destroyers.

Removing to similar duties in the Queen Elizabeth in February 1917, and thence to the Orion under Rear-Admiral Goodenough that September, Marriott’s final appointment was on Admiral Crichton’s staff in King George V, for in September 1919, he resigned his commission in order to enter the Consular Service.

Subsequently appointed Vice-Consul in Copenhagen, he enjoyed a spate of other European postings, in addition to New York and Panama, and was serving as Consul-General and Political Adviser to the G.O.C. British Forces Palestine at Haifa at the time of being awarded his C.B.E. in June 1949.

In the wake of the 1948 conflict, Marriott found himself embroiled in a complex period of political and diplomatic machinations, his task being to represent British interests but in the absence of the U.K’s formal recognition of the new state of Israel - difficult ground indeed. And he probably did himself few favours by pulling no punches, not least when he informed the Mayor of Haifa, ‘Should you bomb the aerodrome at Amman or hit any British craft, we shall blast every Jewish aeroplane in the air and on land all over Palestine’; see Natan Aridan’s Britain, Israel and Anglo-Jewry 1949-57, for mention of Marriott and further details.

Retiring in 1957, after several years as Consul-General in Zurich, Marriott served as the Appeals Secretary for the Catholic children’s charity Crusade of Rescue 1957-66. He died at Fairford, Gloucestershire, in September 1977; sold with copied research.