William Marshall (British Army officer, born 1865)

British Army general (1865–1939)

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. 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. 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. Commanding Officer of 1st Battalion, Sherwood Foresters on the Western Front during 1914–15, Marshall was then posted to command the 87th Brigade of the 29th Division in the ill fated expedition to Gallipoli, 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. 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, 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 post war career took him back to India commanding the 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, at the age of 73. He was survived by his wife, Emma Cundell, whom he married in 1902.