Bruce Marshall - Life and Work

Life and Work

Marshall was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, the son of Claude Niven Marshall and Annie Margaret (Bruce) Marshall. He was educated at St. Andrews. He became a Roman Catholic in 1917 and remained active and interested in the faith for the rest of his life. He was a member and at times served as an officer in the Una Voce and the Latin Mass Society organizations.

During World War I he initially served as a private in the Highland Light Infantry. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant into the Royal Irish Fusiliers in 1918. Six days before the 1918 Armistice he was seriously wounded. Courageous German medical orderlies risked intense shelling to rescue him and he was taken prisoner. His injuries resulted in the amputation of one leg. He was promoted to lieutenant in 1919 and invalided out in 1920.

After the war he completed his education in Scotland, became an auditor, and moved to France where he worked in the Paris branch of Peat Marwick Mitchell.

In 1928 he married Mary Pearson Clark (1908–1987). They had one daughter—Sheila Elizabeth Bruce Marshall. In 2009, his granddaughter, Leslie Ferrar, was Treasurer to the Prince of Wales.

He was living in Paris during the 1940 Invasion of France and escaped two days before the Nazi occupied the city. Returning to England he rejoined the military, initially serving in the Royal Army Pay Corps as a lieutenant. He was promoted to captain in Intelligence, assisting the French underground, and then was a lieutenant-colonel in the Displaced Persons Division in Austria. He transferred to the General List in 1945, and left the Army as a lieutenant-colonel in 1946.

After the war Marshall returned to France, moving to the Côte d'Azur and living there for the remainder of his life. He died in Biot, France, six days before his 88th birthday.