William Thomas Marshall

He dragged a wounded commander through enemy fire at El Teb.

William Thomas Marshall was born at Newark, Nottinghamshire, on 5 December 1854. He joined the 19th Hussars on 20 July 1873 and developed a long career in the cavalry. By the time the regiment campaigned in Egypt and the Sudan, he had become quartermaster-sergeant, responsible for much of the practical organization that sustained the men and their horses.

He served in the Egyptian campaign of 1882 and was present at Tel-el-Kebir. Two years later the regiment took part in the fighting near the Red Sea port of Suakin. At El Teb on 29 February 1884, British troops defeated the forces opposing their advance, but the cavalry fighting left individual soldiers isolated among the enemy.

The commanding officer of the 19th Hussars, Lieutenant-Colonel Percy Barrow, was badly wounded and his horse was killed. On the ground and surrounded, he faced being left behind as the regiment moved away. Marshall stayed with him, caught his hand and dragged him back through the hostile troops to the regiment.

His Victoria Cross citation, published in the London Gazette on 21 May 1884, records that he "seized his hand and dragged him through the enemy back to the regiment". The account explicitly states that Barrow would have been killed if abandoned. Marshall's rescue combined the decision to remain beside a fallen officer with the physical effort of bringing him out during close fighting.

Queen Victoria presented the Cross at Windsor Castle on 3 July 1884. He was commissioned as a quartermaster in January 1885, progressing from the ranks into the officer corps. Later service took him to South Africa, where his campaign included the defence of Ladysmith and operations around Laing's Nek. His Egyptian and South African medals recorded these campaigns alongside the Cross.

Marshall married Louisa Wiseman at Ipswich in October 1900, and they had a daughter. After service as camp quartermaster at Aldershot, he retired in 1907. In March 1908 he became secretary of the Fife County Territorial Force Association, continuing military administrative work in Scotland. He was mentioned in despatches for his Great War recruitment and training services and held the rank of lieutenant-colonel by 1919.

He died at Kirkcaldy on 11 September 1920 and was buried in its cemetery. His decorations passed into the care of the regimental museum now associated with the Light Dragoons.