PRIVATE THOMAS MARSHALL
SEAFORTH HIGHLANDERS
6TH SEPTEMBER 1917 AGE 22
BURIED: NEW IRISH FARM CEMETERY, YPRES, BELGIUM
A Miss J Marshall of 128 Devonshire Road, Walkerville, Ontario, Canada, chose Thomas Marshall's inscription - his elder sister? He certainly he had a sister called Jane who was two years older than him according to the 1911 Census. Thomas Marshall was born in Glasgow but I couldn't find him in the 1911 census. He served with the 1/5th Seaforth Highlanders, part of the 51st Highland Division, whose divisional history describes the circumstances in which he met his death:
"On 6th September the 5th Seaforth Highlanders attempted a raid on the enemy's posts in front of Pheasant Trench, 3 officers and 100 other ranks being employed. The raiding party failed to reach the enemy's lines owing to the intensity of his rifle and machine-gun fire; but they obtained some valuable information, and caused the enemy serious losses by the energetic use of their rifles ... The raiders could not regain our lines during daylight, and remained in shell-holes until dusk, when they returned having lost 1 officer and 19 men killed, 2 officers and 18 men wounded, and 9 men missing."
Marshall was one of the nine missing men, his body not discovered until February 1920. His inscription comes from the nineteenth verse of Robert Burns' The Cotter's Saturday Night.
"From scenes like these, old Scotia's grandeur springs
That makes her love'd at home, revere'd abroad:"
Miss J Marshall might have been referring to the kind of scenes described above in the divisional history, but Burns was referring to the sight of a happy cottager's family contentedly going about their Sunday routines: attendance at church before the family gather together to share a meal.
The final line of the inscription comes, of course, from the Lord's prayer and is one of the most popular of all inscriptions on War Grave Commission headstones.