Major General Sir John Charles Oakes Marriott, (29 June 1895 – 11 September 1978) was a senior British Army officer who served during the First World War and again in the Second World War.

Military career

John Marriott was born in Stowmarket,

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...

, on 29 June 1895. He was educated at Repton School and later entered the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, from where he graduated and was commissioned as a

second lieutenant Second lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces, comparable to NATO OF-1 rank. Australia The rank of second lieutenant existed in the military forces of the Australian colonies and Australian Army until ...

into the Northamptonshire Regiment in 1914, the year the First World War began.Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives
/ref> Promoted to lieutenant on 10 May 1915, he served in the war as a Staff Captain with the 7th Infantry Brigade in France and then as a

General Staff Officer A military staff or general staff (also referred to as army staff, navy staff, or air staff within the individual services) is a group of officers, enlisted and civilian staff who serve the commander of a division or other large military un ...

(GSO) with the

66th (2nd East Lancashire) Division The 66th (2nd East Lancashire) Division was an infantry division of the British Army, part of the Territorial Force, which saw service in the trenches of the Western Front, during the later years of the Great War and was disbanded after the w ...

. Marriott won both the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) and Military Cross, as well as the French

Croix de guerre The ''Croix de Guerre'' (, ''Cross of War'') is a military decoration of France. It was first created in 1915 and consists of a square-cross medal on two crossed swords, hanging from a ribbon with various degree pins. The decoration was first awa ...

. He remained in the army after the war and during the

interwar period In the history of the 20th century, the interwar period lasted from 11 November 1918 to 1 September 1939 (20 years, 9 months, 21 days), the end of the World War I, First World War to the beginning of the World War II, Second World War. The in ...

and became a GSO to the

military attaché A military attaché is a military expert who is attached to a diplomatic mission, often an embassy. This type of attaché post is normally filled by a high-ranking military officer, who retains a commission while serving with an embassy. Opport ...

in Washington, D.C. He transferred to the Scots Guards in 1920. He was made Deputy Assistant Adjutant & Quartermaster General for

London District London District (LONDIST) is the name given by the British Army to the area of operations encompassing the Greater London area. It was established in 1870 as ''Home District''. History In January 1876 a ‘Mobilization Scheme for the forces in ...

in 1933. Appointed a Member of the Royal Victorian Order in 1935 and elevated to Commander in 1937, Marriott was made

Commanding Officer The commanding officer (CO) or sometimes, if the incumbent is a general officer, commanding general (CG), is the officer in command of a military unit. The commanding officer has ultimate authority over the unit, and is usually given wide latitu ...

(CO) of the 2nd Battalion, Scots Guards in 1938. He served in the Second World War, initially in the Middle East and from 1940 as CO of the 21st Infantry Brigade. From October 1940 he commanded the

29th Indian Infantry Brigade The 29th Indian Infantry Brigade was an infantry brigade formation of the Indian Army during World War II. It was formed on 11 October 1940, by the renumbering of the British 21st Infantry Brigade. It was assigned to the 5th Indian Infantry Div ...

, part of the

5th Indian Infantry Division The 5th Indian Infantry Division was an infantry division of the Indian Army during World War II that fought in several theatres of war and was nicknamed the "Ball of Fire". It was one of the few Allied divisions to fight against three differe ...

, in the East African Campaign for which he received a

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to his DSO. In October 1941, on return to the Western Desert, he was placed in command of the

22nd Guards Brigade The 22nd Guards Brigade was an infantry brigade of the British Army that saw distinguished active service during the Second World War. History The 22nd Infantry Brigade was formed by the redesignation of the 29th Infantry Brigade on 3 Septemb ...

, which was renamed successively 200th Guards Brigade and 201st Guards Motor Brigade. He avoided capture when the brigade was forced to surrender when Tobruk was captured during the Battle of Gazala on 20 June 1942 by

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and

Italian forces The Italian Armed Forces ( it, Forze armate italiane, ) encompass the Italian Army, the Italian Navy and the Italian Air Force. A fourth branch of the armed forces, known as the Carabinieri, take on the role as the nation's military police and ar ...

. He returned to the United Kingdom and from September 1942 to December 1943 he took command of the

32nd Guards Brigade 3 (three) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 2 and preceding 4, and is the smallest odd prime number and the only prime preceding a square number. It has religious or cultural significance in many societie ...

, part of the Guards Armoured Division. He was Deputy Director of Infantry at the War Office from 1943. After the war he was promoted to acting major-general on 15 October 1945 and became General Officer Commanding (GOC) of the

Guards Division The Guards Division is an administrative unit of the British Army responsible for the training and administration of the regiments of Foot Guards and the London Guards reserve battalion. The Guards Division is responsible for providing two b ...

in Germany in 1945 and Major-General commanding the Brigade of Guards and GOC

in 1947; he retired from the army in 1950.

Family

In 1920 he married Maud (Momo) Emily Wolff Kahn (1897-1960), the daughter of Otto Hermann Kahn, investment banker, collector, philanthropist, and patron of the arts. They had one child, John Oakes Marriott (1921-2007) who never married. The three are buried together in Brookwood Cemetery in

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

References

Publications

Bibliography

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External links

National Portrait Gallery, London The National Portrait Gallery (NPG) is an art gallery in London housing a collection of portraits of historically important and famous British people. It was arguably the first national public gallery dedicated to portraits in the world when it ...

Photographs Collection
Sir John Charles Oakes Marriott
portrait photograph by Walter Stoneman, 27 May 1947.
Generals of World War II
, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Marriott, John Charles Oakes 1895 births 1978 deaths British Army personnel of World War I Companions of the Distinguished Service Order Companions of the Order of the Bath Knights Commander of the Royal Victorian Order Northamptonshire Regiment officers Scots Guards officers Recipients of the Croix de Guerre 1914–1918 (France) Recipients of the Military Cross Burials at Brookwood Cemetery British military attachés British Army generals Military personnel from Suffolk War Office personnel in World War II Graduates of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst British Army brigadiers of World War II People educated at Repton School