Description
Royal Marines Meritorious Service Medal, Colour Sergeant William George Burnett Marshall, Royal Marines later RM Police, who also took part in the Mekran Expedition of 1911.
Officially impressed: “CH.16326 C. Sgt. W.G.B. Marshall. 28.2.51”
Near mint condition barely touched as awarded to a since retired 62 year old veteran.
Medal earned in career:
NGS, bar Persian Gulf 1909-1914, HMS Highflyer, landed and took part in the Mekran Expedition
1914-15 Star Trio, for service on HMS Commonwealth (1914-17) and HMS Shannon (1917-1918)
Naval Long Service and Good Conduct, GV, Colour Sergeant, HMS Despatch.
Following the war spent some years in China where he became Colour Sergeant on the Hawkins.
William George Burnett Marshall, was born on 25th August 1889 in Millbrook, Southampton.
He worked as an Outdoor Porter before enlisting on 12th October 1908.
Having spent a year at the Recruit Depot in Deal, he joined Chatham Division, before seeing his first real ship posting joining HMS Highflyer.
He joined the Highflyer on 21st February 1911 and left on 23rd April 1913.
THE MEKRAN EXPEDITION
As recalled on his service papers, the period was anything but quiet, he was swiftly deployed to the Persian Gulf where he would later earn his Naval General Service Medal, bar Persian Gulf 1909-1914.
His papers note he on 10th April 1911: “Landed and took part in the Mekran Expedition.”
“At 10 o’clock on the morning of Monday, April 10, HMS Highflyer and HMS Northbrook dropped anchor off the mouth of the Rapch between 2 and 3 miles from the shore, and the latter began immediately to disembark troops.”
“The Highflyer also landed a contingent of Marines under Major Heriot, R.M.L.I. – Handy men, every one of them, and already well versed in ‘Gulf Lore’. Blankets and ‘grub’ were scrace that night at Galag, and most of us slept as we were on the sand.”
The plan was to counter the Ghilzai Gun Runners who had moved into the area and were suspected of organising large scale arms smuggling, however the territory proved hard to traverse, the region, on the border of Pakistan and Iran was a semi-desert region leaving the men to wander through the sands under the dry heat and blazing sun, followed by typical cold nights, the men were only given a “Half-blanket” with the Officers getting a full size one.
Arnold Keppel writes of his experiences:
“It was a cruel country, barren and utterly heartless… The sun bakes the stones, and the wind scorched the lips like fire… The enemy hid behind every rock and palm bush, but not even a trickle of water flowed for the men to drink.”
One amusing event was when the field force attempted to form a Camel Corps, the Royal Marines were selected to have the honour, although it was found that the Marines were quite useless on a Camel and that the Camels themselves were not really useful for carrying people rather than supplies.
“The news of these dispositions made it finally clear that if any good were to result from this first landing, it was absolutely necessary that the column should reach Bint. With this intention it was gently broken to the Marines that they would be
expected to furnish a camel corps, and a parade was ordered for the afternoon of Good Friday.
Now, there is a good deal of difference between a riding-camel and a pack-camel, and those at the disposal of the Marines were chiefly of the latter variety, so that after the parade it became evident that if there were to be a camel corps at all, the
Punjabis, who are accustomed to camels, and not the Marines, were the men to undertake the job.
The Marines therefore magnanimously waived their claim to the honour, and were provided with mules.”
Following the successful end of the expedition, he returned back to his ship and would earn his first campaign medal.
WORLD WAR 1
He was advanced to Corporal on the Swiftsure on 12th July 1913 and just before war was declared, joined HMS Commonwealth with whom he served on board from 23rd June 1914 until 15th June 1917.
During that he was various promotions, becoming Lance Sergeant on 1st Jan 1917 followed by Sergeant on 15th March 1917.
During his 3 years on the Commonwealth, they were part of the 3rd Battle Squadron assigned to the patrolling around Scotland and the North Sea with the Northern Patrol.
With HMS Commonwealth being taken in for upgrades, he returned to Chatham, before being deployed to HMS Shannon, serving on board for the rest of the war from 3rd December 1917 until 31st December 1918.
During this period the Shannon was serving on escort duties for the Atlantic Convoys.
He was immediately involved in “The Action of 11-12th December 1917”, a German Naval Operations against the Scandinavian Convoy routes, the Shannon was part of the covering force but was powerless to stop the entire convoy from being sunk.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_of_11%E2%80%9312_December_1917
The Shannon was Flagship of the Covering Force, which ended up in disaster, all 6 civilian ships (1 UK, 1 Denmark, 2 Norway, 2 Sweden) were all sunk by the German Navy and by the time the message got through to the Shannon and the rest of the covering force, they got their to find the entire Scandinavian Convoy under water, alongside the British Escort all either damaged or sunk.
They spent an hour there rescuing what survivors they could gather.
Following the end of the war, he remained on with the Royal marines, and rose to Colour Sergeant on HMS Hawkins, dated 23rd September 1923.
He had served on the Hawkins from 30th march 1923 – 31st October 1924 and again from 1st Dec 1914 until 11th Feb 1925, all serving on the China Station.
He returned home form China, on a Merchant Navy ship from “Taku Bay” to London on 7th January 1926.
On completion of finishing out his second period of engagement he was discharged to the Royal Fleet Reserve on 12th October 1929.
Not satisfied he chose to enlist in the Royal Marines Police on 29th May 1933 returning to service as a Royal Marines Constable.
he was later remobilised on 28th September 1938.
Shown as serving with Chatham Division from 26th August 1939 – 16th December 1939, he was however found to be “Physically Unfit for the Royal Marines” and discharged.
He earned this long awaited award of the Royal Marines Meritorious Service Medal on 28th February 1951 at which time he was about 62 years old.
He later died on 24th September 1961 in London.
