Francis Marshall (physiologist)

British physiologist (1878–1949

Francis Hugh Adam Marshall CBE FRS FRSE LLD (11 July 1878 – 5 February 1949) was a British physiologist who did pioneering early research into the physiology and endocrinology of biological reproduction.

Marshall was born in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, the son of Thomas Marshall and Mary née Lucas. He was educated at St Mark's School in Windsor then Southborough School in Tunbridge Wells. He studied at University College, London, and then at the University of Cambridge, graduating from Christ's College in 1900. He did further postgraduate studies at the University of Edinburgh, gaining his first doctorate (DSc).

Marshall's first position was a research assistant to James Cossar Ewart in Edinburgh, assisting Ewart's work on the now discredited theory of telegony. From 1903 to 1908, Marshall lectured at the University of Edinburgh in Natural History. His presence at the university is cited as one of the reasons that the Institute of Animal Genetics was established there in the 1910s. In 1908, Marshall returned to the University of Cambridge, lecturing in the School of Agriculture, and becoming a Reader in 1919. He was a fellow of Christ's College from 1909 until his death. His studies of reproduction were interrupted by the First World War, during which he did research for the Ministries of Food and Agriculture, for example on the optimal age to slaughter cattle. His subsequent research focused on the effect of external factors such as light and climate on reproduction. He also researched courtship and reproduction in birds. The University of Edinburgh gave him an honorary Doctor of Laws degree (LLD) in 1939.

He never married and had no children. He retired in 1943 and died of appendicitis in Cambridge on 5 February 1949.