Marshall of the ten wounds

James Neville Marshall VC, MC & Bar, Chevalier de l’order de Leopold, Croix de guerre (1887-1918) was, it seems, born to be a soldier.

He was also a bit of a lad outside his military service. His pre-war antics included working as a clerk in a veterinary clinic, then branching out in his own establishment as a vet. Except he couldn’t say he was a vet because he wasn’t trained as one. It was perfectly fine for him to work as a vet, he just couldn’t call himself one. So he didn’t.

He also threatened a farmer, was fined for driving without a licence in a car with no lights and lied about his father being a Knight of the Realm.

I heard the story of Marshall tonight, in a Western Front Association webinar given by Peter Lees. Poor Peter was having a few technical issues with his slides but a couple of quick tweaks by his daughter (I think) saw everything working as it should in next to no time.

Peter took us through Marshall’s life via, among other things, Marshall’s war diaries. He has also written a biography of the man. He is definitely quite knowledgeable.

Marshall had a few nicknames during the war. He was called the Mad Major and Marshall of the Ten Wounds. He was called the latter because he was always getting wounded. One instance was so bad that he missed 330 days of the war recuperating. But, like all of his woundings, he was back in the fighting as soon as he was able to stand.

He quickly worked his way up through the ranks. When he died, trying to repair a bridge across the Sambre–Oise Canal, near Catillon, in France, he was an acting Lieutenant-Colonel. It was this engagement that earned him the Victoria Cross. He was sending crews to fix the bridge, standing on a bank of the canal directing his men. He was shot and killed. He was 31.

His story is extraordinary, with a fair bit of swashbuckling daring-do thrown in. I’m tempted to read Peter Lee’s biography. I’m sure it would read better than the way it was read tonight.

I am getting to the point where I don’t think I’ll watch many more WFA webinars. There have been far too many dull presentations of exciting subjects.

On the other hand, and far from dull, I hung the Christmas lights around the house today. The red lights on the deck are especially delightful.

They look particularly good when the deck is wet.