First World War in Headington & Marston
Roll of Honour of Holy Trinity Church, Headington Quarry

Alick Stuart MARSHALL (1889–1916)

Alick Stuart Marshall (whose first name is recorded as Alec on the Quarry war memorial) was born in Headington Quarry in 1889, the son of David Marshall (born in Dundee, Scotland in c.1852) and Harriet Selina Coppock (born in Headington Quarry and baptised at Holy Trinity Church on 23 September 1860).

His parents were married at Holy Trinity Church on 29 September 1879 and had three children:

• Daisy Harriet Marshall (born in Bedfield, Suffolk and baptised at Holy Trinity Church in Headington Quarry on 12 September 1880)
• Edgar James Marshall (born in Headington Quarry and baptised at Holy Trinity Church on 29 October 1882)
• Alick Stuart Marshall (born in Headington Quarry and baptised at Holy Trinity Church on 30 June 1889).

Alick’s father David was a schoolmaster and it looks as though he and his wife started off their married life in Bedfield, Suffolk where their first child Daisy was born in 1880; but by September of that year they were living in Quarry, and it is possible that David Marshall taught at Quarry National School, as he was still described as a teacher at Daisy’s baptism in Quarry in September that year.

By the time of the 1881 census, however, Alick’s father is described as an unemployed teacher. He was then living with his wife and their first child, Daisy, near the Six Bells in the house of Harriet’s parents, William and Eliza Coppock.

Alec’s father never returned to the teaching profession, and at the baptism of his next two children In 1882 and 1889 he is described as a “timekeeper for builder”. By the time of the 1891 census he was a gardener, living at Beaumont Terrace. His father-in-law now being dead, he was now the head of the household, and his family was complete. His widowed mother-in-law Eliza Coppock (74) was still living with the family, as well as his wife’s nephew George W. Coppock (19). Alick was then just two years old

The 1901 census gives the family’s address as being near Quarry “manor house”. Young Alick was a schoolboy of eleven; his father was now a painter, and his mother and sister were laundresses.

Alick’s father died at the age of 54 on 27 August 1908 and was buried at Holy Trinity churchyard on 30 August 1908.

At the time of the 1911 census, Alick (22) had moved away from home and was a chauffeur, boarding at Hazlewood, St John’s Road, Abingdon with the family of John Sandell, manager of a butcher’s shop.His mother Harriet was still a laundress, living in Beaumont Road (then called Post Office Road) in Quarry with her unmarried son Edgar (28), who was a bricklayer’s labourer.

In the First World War Alick Stuart Marshall was a Corporal in the Mechanical Transport, 17th Ammunition Sub. Park of the Army Service Corps (Service No. M2/035041). He was killed in action in France at the Somme on 1 October 1916 at the age of 27.

He is buried in the Bernafay Wood British Cemetery, Montauban (A.20), and is listed on the stone plaque in the porch of Holy Trinity Church in Headington Quarry. The grave of Alick’s parents in the churchyard (below) has the following words added:

AND OF
ALICK STUART MARSHALL
KILLED ON THE SOMME OCT 1ST 1916
IN SILENCE WE REMEMBER

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Postscript

Alec’s mother

• Mrs Harriet Selina Marshall on 10 October 1936 at the age of 76, and was buried at Holy Trinity churchyard three days later. She was living at 90 Old Road (on the east corner of The Slade, then numbered 82) at the time of her death .

Alec’s sister

• Daisy Harriet Marshall (born 1880) married the bricklayer Arthur Thomas Kimber at Holy Trinity church on 13 April 1907. They had two children baptised at Holy Trinity Church: Roy Alec Thomas Kimber (born on 24 April 1918 and baptised on 9 June 1918) and Victor Stanley Kimber (born on 16 August 1920 and baptised on 10 October 1920).