Vice-Admiral Gerald Charles Adolphe Marescaux CB CMG (10 February 1860 – 3 September 1920) was a Royal Navy and British Army officer.

Commissioned as a lieutenant-colonel, he served as landings officer at Le Havre before being appointed Deputy Assistant Quartermaster General at Boulogne in 1915.

[8] He gained third-class certificates in seamanship, gunnery, and navigation before his rank was made permanent on 22 January 1881, backdated to 16 February the previous year.

[13] Marescaux subsequently served aboard the sloop HMS Egeria, surveying the islands of Tongatapu and ʻEua in Tonga.

They took volcanic samples for the Hydrographer of the Navy and erected a flagpole 250 feet (76 m) above sea level and 20 yards (18 m) inland before returning to the ship.

[18] From 21 January 1895, he had command of the gunboat HMS Alecto and was engaged in surveying the Calabar River and the Niger delta in the Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria.

[19][20][21] Alecto sailed from Bonny, Nigeria, on 17 October and arrived to continue "special service" at Sierra Leone and Accra on 13 November.

[26][28][29] Subsequently, at Queen Victoria's diamond jubilee fleet review on 26 June 1897, Marescaux commanded the protected cruiser HMS Dido.

[33] Marescaux received permanent command of Proserpine on 1 November 1900, initially serving on the North America and West Indies Station.

[36] Early in the morning of 7 November, Proserpine was anchored in heavy fog off Sheerness when the mail packet Koningen Regente collided with her bow.

[30][38][39] In April Pactolus conveyed the torpedo boat destroyer HMS Flying Fish out to Gibraltar before returning to the Channel.

[30][46][47] Returning to again command Europa, later in the year he was censured by the Admiralty for "most unsatisfactory conduct" after he interviewed his officer of the watch and signal bosun in his cabin while wearing only his pyjamas.

[1][52] Implacable served as temporary flagship of the Second and Third Fleets in 1913, carrying Vice-Admiral Frederick Hamilton whilst HMS Queen underwent refit.

[1][57][54] When the First World War began in 1914 Marescaux was still a newly promoted rear-admiral and was thus very junior, having ten admirals immediately senior to him.

This meant that he would be passed over for command vacancies in favour of more senior admirals, and so he requested that he be seconded to the War Office so that he could still see active service.

[66] He was promoted to the temporary rank of colonel and made Base Commandant, Dunkirk, on 28 March 1917, by which time he had been transferred to the General List of officers.

[1][3] Appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath on 1 January 1919, Marescaux was promoted to vice-admiral on the list of retired officers eight days later.

[75] He died of a cerebral haemorrhage brought on by the frequent bombings of Dunkirk while he was commandant there, at the Royal Naval Hospital, Chatham, on 3 September 1920, aged 60.