Captain, 2nd/3rd East Lancashire Field Ambulance, Royal Army Medical Corps.
Drowned Friday 13th August 1915, age 27.
Remembered on the Helles Memorial, Turkey, panels 199 or 200 or 236 to 239 and 328.
Former student of medicine, demonstrator in anatomy.
Charles, the youngest son of William Marshall J.P. and his wife Sarah, was born in Rochdale in 1888. He was educated at Rochdale Central School and then Manchester Grammar School. After the family moved to Cheadle Hulme he went on to study medicine at Manchester University where he gained his M.B. (Bachelor of Medicine) in 1909, a Diploma in Public Health (D.P.H.) in 1911, and his M.D. (Doctor of Medicine) in 1913. After graduating he worked at Rochdale Infirmary, Ancoats Hospital and Manchester Royal Infirmary as well as a part time Anatomy Demonstrator at the University.
He was commissioned into the Territorial Army serving with the 3rd East Lancashire Field Ambulance, and when War broke out was involved in training newly recruited combat medics. As the 3rd East Lancashire Field Ambulance was on active service overseas a reserve unit was formed in the U.K the 2/3rd East Lancashire Field Ambulance and Captain Marshall became its Commanding Officer in June 1915. However, casualties in the original Lancashire Field Ambulances in Gallipoli meant that the reserve units were called upon to send reinforcement’s and volunteers from the 2/2nd and 2/3rd East Lancashire Field Ambulances under the command of Captain Marshall where sent out in late July 1915 aboard H.M.T. Royal Edward bound for Gallipoli. On the 13th August 1915 the Royal Edward was torpedoed just off the Gallipoli Peninsula by the German submarine U14. Of the 851 men lost when the ship was hit, 35 came from the 2/3rd East Lancashire Field Ambulance. Captain Marshall was recorded by witnesses as having died while trying to evacuate his men from the sinking ship.
In a letter Lieutenant F.B. Smith of the 2/3rd Field Ambulance later recorded “I have not told you what a corporal of our section has told me, that he saw Capt. Marshall, long after he himself was in the water, still on the highest deck with the captain of the ship, revolver in hand, encouraging and controlling the men. He had no need to use his weapon because discipline was splendid. The men knew his worth and not one but has spoken to me sadly of our loss. Such a cool courageous sticking to duty was characteristic of the man he was.”