| Sir William Marshall | |
| Birth Date: | 29 October 1865[1] |
| Birth Place: | Stranton, near Hartlepool, County Durham, England |
| Death Place: | Bagnoles-de-l'Orne, France |
| Allegiance: |  United Kingdom |
| Branch: | British Army |
| Serviceyears: | 1886--1925 |
| Rank: | Lieutenant-General |
| Unit: | Sherwood Foresters |
| Commands: | 1st Battalion, Sherwood Foresters 87th Brigade 42nd (East Lancashire) Division 29th Division 53rd (Welsh) Division 27th Division Southern Army, India |
| Battles: | Second Boer War First World War |
| Awards: | Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath Knight Commander of the Order of the Star of IndiaOrder of the White Eagle, 2nd Class (Serbia) |
Lieutenant-General Sir William Raine Marshall (29 October 1865 – 29 May 1939) was a British Army officer who in November 1917 succeeded Sir Stanley Maude (upon the latter's death from cholera) as Commander-in-Chief of the British forces in Mesopotamia. He kept that position until the end of the First World War.
Marshall was born in the village of Stranton, near Hartlepool, County Durham. He was the younger son of a solicitor, William Marshall, and his wife, Elizabeth Raine.[1]
He first went to Repton School and then Royal Military College, Sandhurst. He received a commission into the Sherwood Foresters in January 1886, after which he served on the Malakand expedition, on the North West Frontier and on the Tirah expedition before fighting in the Second Boer War.[2] Following the end of the war, in late May 1902, Marshall received a brevet promotion to lieutenant-colonel in the South African Honours list published on 26 June 1902. He was promoted to the permanent rank of lieutenant colonel in February 1912, when he took command of the 1st Battalion, Sherwood Foresters.
Still in this post upon the outbreak of the First World War in the summer of 1914, Marshall served on the Western Front during 1914–15. He was then promoted to the temporary wartime rank of brigadier general in February 1915 and assigned to command the 87th Brigade of the 29th Division, which he led in the ill-fated expedition to Gallipoli,[2] during which he received a promotion to major-general in June 1915. On 25 April that year he was wounded during the "X" Beach landings, having received a slight flesh wound in the leg above the knee.
A series of divisional commands followed: 42nd, 29th, and 53rd, before he was posted to Salonika with the 27th Division, and then with III (Indian) Corps on the Mesopotamian Front.[2] It was while commanding III Corps that Marshall participated in the capture of Kut-al-Amara in February 1917, and in the capture of Baghdad the following month.[3]
With Lieutenant General Sir Frederick Maude's death as Commander-in-Chief from cholera (most probably from contaminated milk), the hugely popular commander was replaced by the careful and meticulous Marshall,[2] appointed by General Sir William Robertson, the Chief of the Imperial General Staff at the War Office in London, the latter determined to scale back operations in Mesopotamia.[4] It was in this capacity that Marshall accepted the surrender of the Ottoman army at Mosul on 30 October 1918, with the signing of the Armistice of Mudros.[1]
His decision to seize Ottoman territory around Mosul after the ceasefire is controversial, the Official History makes no mention of this action and is explained in a 2017 article.[5]
His post-war career took him back to India commanding the Southern Army and remaining there until 1923;[2] he retired the following year.[2]
Marshall was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath in 1916. He was knighted three times – as a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (1917), Knight Commander of the Order of the Star of India (1918) and Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George (1919).[1]
He died at Le Grand Hôtel, Bagnoles-de-l'Orne, France, at the age of 73. He was survived by his wife, Emma Cundell, whom he married in 1902.[1]
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