Gerald Marescaux | |
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 1918 portrait | |
| Born | 10 September 1860 London |
| Died | 3 September 1920 (aged 59) Royal Naval Hospital, Chatham |
| Buried | Gillingham Cemetery |
| Allegiance | United Kingdom |
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| Years of service | 1873–1919 |
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| Spouse(s) | Kathleen Marescaux |
Vice-Admiral Gerald Charles Adolphe Marescaux CB CMG (10 February 1860 – 3 September 1920) was a Royal Navy and British Army officer. Having joined the navy in 1873, Marescaux spent the majority of his time as a junior officer serving on surveying duties. Promoted to commander in 1896, he served as captain of ships undergoing trials at Sheerness until 1900. He was promoted to captain in 1903 and held commands at home and on the China Station before, in 1910, he took command of the North of Ireland Coastguard. In 1913 he was made King's Harbour Master, Portland, and promoted to rear-admiral.
When the First World War began, Marescaux was too junior a rear-admiral to receive an active command, and so he had himself seconded to the War Office. Commissioned as a lieutenant-colonel, he served as landings officer at Le Havre before being appointed Deputy Assistant Quartermaster General at Boulogne in 1915. He retired from the navy in the same year. In 1917, Marescaux was appointed Base Commandant, Dunkirk, where he stayed until the Armistice of 11 November 1918, at which point he briefly commanded the British troops in Paris. He retired from the army in 1919 as a colonel and died in 1920 from a cerebral haemorrhage brought on by the frequent bombings of Dunkirk.