Wilfrid Marshall

Lieutenant Wilfrid Marshall, 10th Battalion Leicestershire Regiment, attached 1st Battalion King's Own Scottish Borderers, was killed in action on 4th June 1915. He is commemorated on the Helles Memorial.The Third Battle of Krithia, on the Gallipoli peninsula, began on 4th June 1915. Prior to the battle a Nottinghamshire soldier, George Brett, serving with the 1st King’s Own Scottish Borderers wrote a letter to his father in Worksop on two pages torn from a note book. Brett did not rate his chances of survival highly, having already been subjected to heavy shellfire, as he wrote, "On Sunday they gave it us awful for about two hours". Contemplating what was to come, Brett said that his battalion had been called upon to "lead an attack on a hill" and that a "good many would not get to the top". "If I am one of these," he wrote, "will you just think of me having done my bit for my country and having done my duty?" 29 year-old Brett was killed in the attack. He was reported missing and presumed dead the following year. Today, he is commemorated on the Helles Memorial, as is Wilfred Marshall.4 JUNE 1915. At Helles, the British launched the Third Battle of Krithia on what was described as ‘an exquisite summer’s day’. Although the British broke through the Turkish lines towards Krithia, this advantage was not followed up and the Turkish line held. The British suffered more than 4,500 casualties, the French more than 2,000 and the Turks admitted to more than 9,000 dead and wounded

Article published in the Nottingham Evening Post dated 17th June 1915 : - “NOTTM. OFFICER MISSING.“AN OLD HIGH SCHOOL BOY. “Amongst the officers reported missing from the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force appears the name of Lieut. Wilfrid Marshall, of the 10th Leicestershires, attached to the King's Own Scottish Borderers.“He is the younger son of Mr. and Mrs. W. B. Marshall, of Ebers-road, Nottingham, and is in his 23rd year. Educated at the Nottingham High School, he proceeded to Cambridge as a Sir Thomas White Exhibitioner in 1912, and became Foundation Scholar and Prizeman of St. John's College. Having previously received several years training in the High School and Cambridge University Officers' Training Corps, Lieut. Marshall obtained a commission as second-lieutenant in the Leicestershire Regiment last October, and received his second star in December.“He left England for the Dardanelles on May 12th and was reported missing after the general advance on the Turkish trenches on June 4th. He has a brother (Lieutenant, later Major Arthur Thomas Marshall.) serving as a lieutenant in the 60th Canadian Rifles.” Above article is courtesy of Jim Grundy and his facebook pages Small Town Great War GHucknall 1914-1918