Lieutenant-General Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a three-star military rank (NATO code OF-8) used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on the ...

Sir William Raine Marshall (29 October 1865 – 29 May 1939) was a British Army officer who in November 1917 succeeded Sir Frederick Stanley Maude (upon the latter's death from

cholera Cholera is an infection of the small intestine by some strains of the bacterium ''Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea that lasts a few days. Vomiting and ...

) as Commander-in-Chief of the British forces in Mesopotamia. He kept that position until the end of the First World War.

Biography

Marshall was born in the village of

Stranton Stranton is an area of south Hartlepool in the borough of Hartlepool, County Durham, England. It is a former village and parish. The ancient parish boundaries were the North Sea to the east, Greatham Creek, an arm of the Tees, to the south, the ...

, near

Hartlepool Hartlepool () is a seaside and port town in County Durham, England. It is the largest settlement and administrative centre of the Borough of Hartlepool. With an estimated population of 90,123, it is the second-largest settlement in County ...

, County Durham. He was the younger son of a solicitor, William Marshall, and his wife, Elizabeth Raine. He first went to Repton School and then Royal Military College, Sandhurst. He received a commission into the Sherwood Foresters in 1886, after which he served on the Malakand expedition, on the North-West Frontier (military history), North West Frontier and on the Tirah Campaign, Tirah expedition before fighting in the Second Boer War. Following the end of the war, in late May 1902, Marshall received a Brevet (military), brevet promotion to Lieutenant-colonel (British Army), lieutenant-colonel in the South African Honours list published on 26 June 1902. Commanding Officer of 1st Battalion Sherwood Foresters on the Western Front during 1914–15, Marshall was then posted to command 87th brigade of British 29th Division, 29th Division in the ill-fated expedition to Gallipoli (battle), Gallipoli, during which he received a promotion to Major-General in June 1915. A series of divisional commands followed: British 42nd (East Lancashire) Division, 42nd, 29th, and British 53rd (Welsh) Division, 53rd, before he was posted to Salonika with 27th Division (British), 27th Division, and then with III Corps (India), III (Indian) Corps on the Mesopotamian Campaign, Mesopotamian Front. 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. With Sir Frederick Stanley Maude, Frederick Maude's death as Commander-in-Chief from

(most probably from contaminated milk), the hugely popular commander was replaced by the careful and meticulous Marshall, appointed by Sir William Robertson (British Army officer), William Robertson at the War Office in London, the latter determined to scale back operations in Mesopotamia. 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. 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. His post-war career took him back to India commanding the Southern Command (India), Southern Army and remaining there until 1923; he retired the following year. 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) He died at Le Grand Hôtel, Bagnoles-de-l'Orne, France. He was survived by his wife, Emma Cundell, whom he married in 1902.

Biography

References

Further reading