John Marshall - Link to Stenhousemuir
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27104 Private, 15th Battalion, (48th Highlanders of Canada), 3rd Canadian Brigade, 1st Canadian Division.
Age: 19
Date of death: 25.4.15
Buried: Menin Gate Memorial Panel 24
Family history: Son of Margaret Currie (formerly Marshall), 73 Hocken Avenue, Toronto and of the late John Marshall, Bellevue Terrace, Stenhousemuir. The family emigrated to Canada when John was a young child. He gave his trade as Steamfitter when he enlisted at Valcartier training camp, near Quebec, on 18 September 1914. He listed his mother as next of kin.
The Battalion sailed for England on 3 October 1914 and arrived in England on 18 October and went into training. While at North Larkhill Camp, Salisbury the Battalion was reviewed by King George V on 4 February and the Battalion went to France on 11 February 1915 and arrived in St Nazaire on 15 February. They then underwent trench training and familiarisation in the Armentieres sector on 23 February before taking over a section of the line. In early April they were in billets in Ryveld before moving to Watou on 15 April. On the 16 April they marched to Abeele and then took motor buses and proceeded to the northern outskirts of Poperinghe and then marched to billets in Ypres. They were issued with orders regarding enemy aircraft and about not congregating in the street. The Germans shelled Ypres on 18 and 19 April with shells landing close to the Battalion billets and on the 20 April Captain Trumbull Warren was killed in the main square in Ypres opposite the Cloth Hall. At 8pm that evening they went into the line at Keerselare north of St Julien and relieving the 16th Battalion.
Action leading to his death
The 24 April found the 15th Battalion in the line at Locality C in the apex of Ypres Salient. On the 24 April the Germans planned a two staged operation, one on each side of the Salient with the first being a converging attack against the apex with the object of this attack to smash the Canadians and capture St Julien and penetrate into the heart of the Salient so, forcing the British to abandon Ypres. At 4am the Germans released chlorine gas and this was accompanied by T-STOFF, tear gas, shells to thicken the gas cloud and increase the effect. At the apex men of the 15th Battalion noticed a number of Germans climb out of their trench and they were wearing helmets that looked like a divers head gear, and this was accompanied by a hissing sound and a greenish-yellow cloud which began to flow covering an area of the front of some 1200 yards. The gas cloud was moving on the dawn breeze and was aimed at the junction of the Canadian 15th and 8th Battalions and was estimated at 15 feet high and came on quickly across No Man’s Land. The 8th Battalion called for artillery support however, the 15th Battalion could not call on artillery support as the artillery of the 3rd Field Artillery, attached to 3rd Brigade, had been moved to cover a hole in the line from earlier fighting. Lieutenant Herbert Maxwell-Scott, a descendant of Sir Walter Scott, recalled ‘Captain McLaren gave an order to get handkerchiefs, soak them, and tie around our mouths and noses… Even with these precautions it was hopeless to try and stand up against the stuff.’ The Canadians hoped to hold on for as long as they could with many expecting to die and to take as many Germans with them as they could. The cloud enveloped all of 15th Battalions right company and nearly all of the centre company. Coughing and chocking and holding wet handkerchiefs or cotton bandoliers to their faces many of the men were blinded and overcome by the gas and fell to the bottom of the trenches and gasping for air they died a dreadful, agonising death. For ten minutes the right and centre companies endured the chlorine gas and heavy shelling and their task of trying to keep the choking gas out of their lungs and stop the advancing German infantry proved impossible. Learn more about Gas and Chemical Warfare
John was listed as having died of gas poisoning. His body was lost and he is listed on the Menin Gate Memorial.
The St Julien Memorial – The Brooding Soldier
The St. Julien Memorial, also known as The Brooding Soldier, is a Canadian war memorial and small commemorative park located in the village of Saint-Julien, today Sint-Juliaan. The memorial commemorates the Canadian First Division's participation in the Second Battle of Ypres which included fighting in the face of the first poison gas attacks along the Western Front. The memorial was designed by World War I veteran and architect Lieutenant Frederick Chapman Clemesha, and was selected following a design competition organized by the Canadian Battlefields Memorials Commission in 1920. The memorial is found on the northern fringe of the village of Saint Julien at the intersection of the N313 road and Zonnebekestraat. During the war, the location where the memorial is located was known as Vancouver Corner. Visible for miles around, the memorial stands 11 metres tall.
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