Albert Marshall

Who was Albert Marshall?

Albert Elliot "Smiler" Marshall was a British veteran of the First World War and the last surviving British cavalryman to have seen battle on the Western Front.

Albert Elliott Marshall was born on 15 March 1897 in Elmstead Market, a village in the Tendring district of Essex, close to Clacton-On-Sea, Great Bentley, Wivenhoe and Colchester.

Albert was the eldest of three children born to James William Marshall and Ellen Marshall, née Skeet. Albert’s mother, Ellen died in 1901 at the age of twenty-four, leaving James to raise their children on his own. They remained in Elmstead Market with them appearing on the 1911 census, showing Albert, by this time age fourteen as a farm labourer. James was a strict father; however Smiler always stood his ground, both as a boy and as a man. When he was set upon by lads from a neighbouring village, Smiler was roundly beaten up. Cut and bruised he returned home to meet his father who burst out laughing, "Ah, at last you have met your Waterloo’ he cried, thereby acknowledging that his son could also hand out a little of the rough stuff when he wanted to.