Arthur Pitt-Marson

Arthur Pitt-Marson was educated at the University of Dijon in France, where he obtained the Diploma du Degré Supérieur, with distinction. He then spent 13 years employed by the Egypt Civil Service, working in the Public Health Service, where he helped combat plague, cholera, malaria, and other diseases that were endemic to the region in that era. During the first decade of the 1900s he was active as a track and field athlete, often competing alongside the British military men that were stationed in Egypt, and specialized in long distances. His most notable results came at the 1906 Olympic Games, where he participated in both the marathon and the five mile. He failed to finish the former and his placement is unknown for the latter, although he was not among the first six finishers. Contemporary news reports, however, indicate that he was much more successful at the local level.

Pitt-Marson later transferred to the Ministry of Education and was an Examiner of Secondary Schools and Controller of Examinations, which were conducted in English, French and Arabic at that time. At the outbreak of World War I he obtained a commission and was the officer in charge of native troops at Moascar on the Suez Canal. He moved to France in 1917 and, during the revolution in Egypt in 1919, worked for the intelligence department. His next move took him to Romania after he joined the Foreign Office. In 1927 he gave up his position with the Foreign Office to study theology at Bishops’ College, Cheshunt and enter the Anglican Ministry. He was ordained by the Bishop of London at St. Paul’s Cathedral in 1928, and went on to hold the post of vicar at Offton (Suffolk), Northampton and Kensington (London). Pitt-Marson’s daughter Aileen, a well known actress, died in 1939 after giving birth to twins. The following year, he emigrated to South Africa to carry out missionary work, where he died in 1956.

Personal Best: Mar – unknown.