One of the former Far East Airlines/All Nippon Marathons used to be displayed on top of the terminal building at Nagoya Airport. I have a vague memory that parts of one (either this or its companion JA6010) ended up with the Tokyo Metropolitan College of Aeronautical Engineering, but a list of their holdings dating back ten years or so doesn't mention it, though the college does have an immaculately restored Chrislea Super Ace and Auster Autocar, so they may have a feel for classic British aircraft!
The last Marathons I can recall seeing were in a scrapyard alongside the A3 at Portsmouth, and were probably those that lingered outside the old Miles hangar at Shoreham (in which at the same time your Falcon lurked in a dark corner, Hairyplane, still wearing its Swedish markings). As a schoolboy aircraft spotter I sheltered under the wing of one of the Marathons on a depressingly wet and grey day (much like every day lately) in 1960, to witness the arrival of a dayglo-bedecked U.S.-registered Beech Super 18. The bespectacled gent flying it readily agreed to me taking a photo of it, and kindly offered to pose alongside. I declined, not wanting to obscure the aircraft. It was many years later, in conversation with George Miles, that I came to regret my rashness when I discovered that the pilot whose portrait I had rejected was none other than Bill Lear, coming to talk with the Miles brothers about design work on his SAAC-23 jet, which later became the Lear Jet 23. Ah, the folly of youth!
Now, here's a piece of useless Marathon lore with which to bore your flying club chums: back in the 1950s the father of airshow and aerobatic pilot Vic Norman (he of Rendcombe Aerodrome and Utterly Butterly Stearman fame) held the concession for Bal Ami jukeboxes and used Marathon G-AMGX as a 'the world's first flying jukebox showroom'.
Turning to Hairy's original post, whilst it's sad that several Miles aircraft are seemingly in limbo in the UK, we do have the prospect of seeing a long-absent Hawk Major and Whitney Straight flying again, along with the Sparrowhawk recreation and (albeit static only) the unique ex-Lindbergh Mohawk. The arrival of another Hawk Major — and one with a fascinating history — is imminent, for restoration and eventual return to its overseas owner. Now, if only someone would stumble upon the restorable remains of an Aerovan…and what wouldn't you give to see Percy Blamire's 'low-drag' Gemini and Brian Iles's M.18 the going round the course alongside your stable in one of Shuttleworth's demonstration races, eh Hairyplane?