King's Messenger
Born: December 30th 1882
Died: December 24th 1942
Age at Death: 59
Died on active service, December 24th 1942
The war service of Retired Captain Herbert Maling, the oldest Old Brightonian to die on active service during the war, is perhaps the most mysterious of any of those commemorated in this book.
Herbert was born on 30 December 1882 in Speldhurst, Kent, to Irwin Maling and his wife Emily (née Whitelock). His was initially a conventional military career. A few years after leaving the College, where he participated in the Second XI as ‘a clever player’ according to a contemporary account in the April 1898 Brighton College Magazine, Maling fought with the East Surrey Regiment in the Boer War, and was mentioned in despatches. Staying in the army after the war, he served in the Somaliland operations of 1908–10.
In the Great War, Maling was transferred to the Connaught Rangers and came ashore with his battalion at Anzac Cove, Gallipoli, in Turkey, on 5 August 1915. During this campaign, it was in the Battle of Hill 60 on 21 August that the battalion suffered its greatest losses. According to an account of the battle by historian Bryan Cooper in his 1916 The Tenth (Irish) Division in Gallipoli:
The Adjutant of the Rangers, Captain Maling, an officer to whose judgment and courage the battalion owed an incalculable debt, was severely wounded here.
Maling was again mentioned in despatches for his conduct in the Gallipoli campaign, and saw no further action. He retired from the army in 1924.
When the Second World War came Maling was recruited as a King’s Messenger. The office, which dates back to the 15th century, involves conveying sensitive information and messages on behalf of the Crown, often to other nations. It was in this capacity that Maling found himself in Turkey in 1942 – sent there perhaps because he had been in the country during the Great War. We do not know why the government should have wanted to send a King’s Messenger there in the first place, but we do know that Turkey was courted by both sides during the war. According to official records he died on Christmas Eve after being taken ill.