Contributed by Ron Inglis, October 2021
Alfred Marshall, 28, was a member of St Philip’s Anglican Church, Auburn, and an ex-pupil of Auburn North Public School. He was a fireman, having completed a five-year apprenticeship at The Australian Ammonia Co. at Clyde. He is one of four Auburn Memorial men that died of sickness or accident before reaching the front line.
Marshall enlisted at Casula on 20 January 1916 and embarked exactly one month later on the Ulysses. This voyage of the Ulysses was among the last of the troop transports to travel to Egypt. For the rest of the war, reinforcements from Australia travelled to the UK via South Africa.
Marshall spent four months in Egypt, before embarking on the Arcadian for the Western Front. He reached the French port of Le Havre, but died there of ‘Broncho-Pneumonia’ on 27 August 1916 in the 7th Canadian Stationary Hospital. Marshall had been in the AIF seven months.
Marshall is buried in the Ste Marie Cemetery in Le Havre. His widow, Bridget Johanna Marshall, received her husband’s medals, plaque and scroll and was awarded a pension of ￡2:13:9d p. f.
Alfred Marshall is honoured on the following memorials in Australia:
- Auburn War Memorial
- Municipality of Auburn 1914-1919 Honour Roll
- St Philip's Anglican Church Auburn First World War Honour Roll
- Auburn North Public School Great War Roll of Honor
- Roll of Honour Australian War Memorial Canberra
His decorations:
- British War Medal 1914-20
- Victory Medal
