British general, born on the 29th of October 1865, and entered the army in 1886. He saw considerable service in the 1897–98 campaign on the N.W. frontier of India and with mounted infantry in the South African War 1899–1902. He was promoted full colonel in 1908, and in 1912 he obtained command of a battalion in India. Returning with his unit to England soon after the outbreak of the World War he took it over to France, but he was almost immediately recalled to take up command of the 86th Brigade of the 29th Division in England, and early in 1915 he proceeded with it to the Dardanelles. It took part in the famous landing of April 25th at Helles and saw much hard fighting. Marshall was promoted major-general for distinguished service in June; he was afterwards in temporary command of different divisions in the Gallipoli Peninsula, and at the evacuation of Suvla he was in charge of the beach work. He was then transferred to the 27th Division at Salonika and served there until September 1915, when he was chosen to command an army corps that was being organized in Mesopotamia. In the memorable campaign conducted by Sir F. S. Maude, by which Kut was recovered and Bagdad taken, his corps gradually cleared the right bank of the Tigris to some distance above Kut, and then forced a passage over the river in defiance of the Turks. His troops led the advance to Bagdad, and after its fall in March 1917 he inflicted a number of heavy defeats upon the enemy to the north of the city. On Sir Stanley Maude’s death in November 1917 Sir William Marshall—who had been given the K.C.B. for his services as a corps commander—succeeded to the chief command. During the ensuing cold season he considerably extended the area under the control of his troops, and on favourable weather again setting in a portion of his army virtually annihilated what was left of the Turkish field forces in Mesopotamia at Kala Shergaat, thus bringing the campaign to a triumphant close. In recognition of his great services Marshall had been promoted lieutenant-general, and he now received the G.C.M.G. At the end of 1919 he took up the command of the Southern Army in India.
