On this day in 1917, William Henry Marshall (1893-1917) was killed in action in Belgium in the Great War.
A lance-corporal in the 24th Infantry Battalion of the Australian Army, William was 24 when he died on October 4, 1917.
He joined the battalion just a few days after his first cousin, Thomas Marshall enlisted in the 24th.
He fought in Gallipoli in 1915 before sailing to Egypt on January 10, 1916.
William joined the British Expeditionary Force and sailed to France in March that year.
He was taken ill with septic sores to his legs in November 1916 and spent a month in hospital before re-joining his battalion just before Christmas that year.
Promoted from private to lance-corporal in March 1917, he was wounded in France two months later.
Shot in the left arm, he was admitted to a military hospital in Rouen before being sent to England for treatment on May 16, 1917.
Admitted to Grove Park Hospital in Richmond, he was later transferred to an auxiliary hospital in Harefield.
William completed his recuperation at Weymouth before heading back to France on June 16, 1917.
After suffering an accidental bayonet wound to his right foot, he re-joined the 24th in Belgium on September 28, 1917.
He was killed just six days later.
He is remembered at Tyne Cot Cemetery in Belgium. The largest Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery in the world, it is the last resting place for more than 11,900 servicemen of the First World War.
William is also remembered on Knowstone War Memorial and on the Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour.
Paul Roberts
NOTES
Born in 1893 in Knowstone, William was a farm worker when he lived with his parents in the village in 1911.
William was the son of James Marshall (1862-1927) and Sarah Jane Kingdom (1865-1934). James was the brother of John Marshall (1857-1928), the father-in-law of Dulcie Camilla Roberts (1892-1977). She was a great-granddaughter of John Roberts (1829-1919), my great-great grandfather, who had 30 grandsons serving in the Great War.
Picture below
Knowstone War Memorial, on which William is remembered. His first cousin, John Marshall (1891-1914) is also commemorated on the memorial. He was killed in action at Givenchy in France in the Great War – just 14 days after arriving on the Western Front.
