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Major Cecil Distin Byng-Maddick
Unit : Headquarters, 1st Parachute Brigade
Army No. : 124941
Awards : Member of the British Empire
Major Byng-Maddick was the Deputy Assistant Adjutant Quartermaster within the 1st Parachute Brigade. He was captured at Arnhem Bridge, but following his return home after the War, Major-General Urquhart recommended that he received either the Member of the British Empire or Officer of the British Empire. Two citations exist recommending both of these. The first reads:
This officer has performed outstanding service, first at Staff Captain and later as Deputy Assistant Adjutant and Quartermaster General, 1st Parachute Brigade. He served throughout the Tunisian campaign, in Sicily, and in Italy. During this period the Brigade was employed in an airborne role and, for long periods, as infantry under many different Formations, and with a variety of different types and scales of transport. Major Byng-Maddick has competed cheerfully and most successfully with the innumerable administrative problems which these operations have involved, and his initiative, untiring energy and devotion to duty have been beyond praise.
The second citation reads:
Major Byng-Maddick served on the staff of 1st Parachute Brigade from its first formation in 1941 until he was captured at Arnhem in 1944. During this period his work has been of the very highest order. As Staff Captain in the North African Campaign, he showed outstanding drive and initiative when the Brigade, which was not then organised to fight for long periods on the ground, was faced with considerable administrative problems. Later he served with equal distinction in Sicily and Italy as Deputy Assistant Adjutant and Quartermaster General of the Brigade. At Arnhem he commanded a party of Brigade Headquarters which helped to hold the bridge against great odds and he showed a high standard of gallantry and determination. Later he escaped from a German Prisoner of War camp but was recaptured.
Since I have known this officer, over a period of three years, he has shown a very exceptional standard of initiative and devotion to duty.