Captain John Peter Ralph Marriott

CMG CMG may refer to: Companies * Capitol Music Group, a music label * China Media Group, the predominant state radio and television broadcaster in the PRC * China Media Group Co., Ltd., publicly listed Chinese holding company in the media sector * ...

(28 November 1879 – 21 December 1938) was a British Royal Navy officer. Marriott was the son of Major Charles Frederick Marriott of the British Army and his wife Isabella (née Jerningham). He married Margaret Murray, daughter of the oceanographer Sir John Murray, and they had two sons, John and Peter. In 1894, he joined the Royal Navy as a Naval Cadet, and he was promoted to lieutenant on 1 April 1902. As a junior officer he was posted to the

sloop A sloop is a sailboat with a single mast typically having only one headsail in front of the mast and one mainsail aft of (behind) the mast. Such an arrangement is called a fore-and-aft rig, and can be rigged as a Bermuda rig with triangular sa ...

HMS ''Beagle'' on 1 July 1902, serving on her in the South Atlantic. Later, he served in the light cruiser HMS ''Hyacinth'',

flagship A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships, characteristically a flag officer entitled by custom to fly a distinguishing flag. Used more loosely, it is the lead ship in a fleet of vessels, typically the fi ...

of the East Indies and Egyptian Squadron, the

armoured cruiser The armored cruiser was a type of warship of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It was designed like other types of cruisers to operate as a long-range, independent warship, capable of defeating any ship apart from a battleship and fast eno ...

HMS ''Drake'', flagship of the

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, and the cadet training cruiser HMS ''Cornwall''. For two years he served on the staff of the

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. In June 1914, he was promoted

Commander Commander (commonly abbreviated as Cmdr.) is a common naval officer rank. Commander is also used as a rank or title in other formal organizations, including several police forces. In several countries this naval rank is termed frigate captain. ...

and became

executive officer An executive officer is a person who is principally responsible for leading all or part of an organization, although the exact nature of the role varies depending on the organization. In many militaries and police forces, an executive officer, o ...

of the cruiser HMS ''Charybdis''. In

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, he was attached to the staff of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, and was

mentioned in dispatches To be mentioned in dispatches (or despatches, MiD) describes a member of the armed forces whose name appears in an official report written by a superior officer and sent to the high command, in which their gallant or meritorious action in the face ...

. He then became Naval Assistant to the First Sea Lord,

Rosslyn Wemyss Admiral of the Fleet Rosslyn Erskine Wemyss, 1st Baron Wester Wemyss, (12 April 1864 – 24 May 1933), known as Sir Rosslyn Wemyss between 1916 and 1919, was a Royal Navy officer. During the First World War he served as commander of the 12th C ...

(whose flagship the ''Charybdis'' had been), at the

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in London, with the rank of Acting

Captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

. Representing Britain at the signing of the Armistice in a railway carriage in

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on 11 November 1918, he was witness to the end of World War I and a marked victory for the Allies. He was confirmed in the rank of

in December 1918. He later attended the Paris Peace Conference, 1919. In 1920 he was appointed Naval Attaché in Tokyo. He voluntarily retired in 1922 following the "

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", hoping that by so doing he would save from compulsory retirement an officer who was less able to afford it. He was recalled for special service in Egypt during the period of tension over Abyssinia. For his war service, he was appointed

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(CMG) in the 1920 New Year Honours and also Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur, Commander of the

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, Officer of the Order of the Nile and the

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Footnotes

References

*Obituary, '' The Times'' (23 January 1938)
"Ferdinand Foch, commander-in-chief"
Britannica.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Marriott, Jack 1879 births 1938 deaths Royal Navy officers of World War I Companions of the Order of St Michael and St George Chevaliers of the Légion d'honneur