George Catlett Marshall Jr. was an American army officer and statesman. He rose through the United States Army to become Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army under Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman, then served as Secretary of State and Secretary of Defense under Truman. Winston Churchill lauded Marshall as the "organizer of victory" for his leadership of the Allied victory in World War II. During the subsequent year, he attempted to but failed to avoid the impending Chinese Civil War. As Secretary of State, Marshall advocated for a U.S. economic and political commitment to post-war European recovery, including the Marshall Plan that bore his name. In recognition of this work, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1953, the only Army general ever to receive the honor.

The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by King George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from an elaborate medieval ceremony for preparing a candidate to receive his knighthood, of which ritual bathing was an element. While not all knights went through such an elaborate ceremony, knights so created were known as "knights of the Bath".