‘Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.’
This Remembrance season, SASRA’s Executive Director Lt Col (Retd) Dr Martin Gliniecki QGM will stand beneath the Menin Gate Memorial in Belgium, where more than 54,000 names are engraved in stone, each one a combatant who fell in the Ypres Salient.
He will lay a SASRA wreath for one of our own: Lance Corporal Frank William Marshall.
As the haunting notes of the Last Post echo and fade through the cobbled streets, he will lay a SASRA wreath for one of our own: Lance Corporal Frank William Marshall, a young Christian soldier who gave his life for God, King and Country.
One of over 900 Battalion casualties in four weeks of fighting.
Frank was born in Broughton, near Banbury, Oxfordshire in 1894, the son of Joseph and worked as a gardener before enlisting in the 1st Battalion Gloucestershire Regiment. While serving, he joined the Soldiers’ Christian Association from which SASRA was later formed. The Imperial War Museum records Frank as dying of wounds received during the First Battle of Ypres on 1 November 1914, aged just 20. He was one of over 900 Battalion casualties in four weeks of fighting in one of the earliest and fiercest battles of the Great War. His name appeared for months in Ready, our Association’s magazine, under the roll of honour and listed as missing.
Image: Memorial stone which includes the name Lance Corporal Frank William Marshall (unknown–1 Nov 1914), Find a Grave Memorial ID 12038204; Maintained by: Find a Grave.
A place of remembrance for those who fought in that area, who never returned and have no known grave.
Image: The wreath that will be laid for Lance Corporal Frank William Marshall. Suggestions for an appropriate message on the tribute card can be emailed to admin@sasra.org.uk by 14 November.
Frank Marshall’s name endures on the Menin Gate, a symbol of sacrifice and a place of remembrance for those who fought in that area, who never returned and have no known grave. They are rightly commemorated daily. As our Executive Director visits this sacred site, we honour Frank’s faith and sacrifice, and all those who gave their lives in the service of others. They are not forgotten and we acknowledge that we stand on the shoulders of giants who professed the faith during the darkest of circumstances.
We stand on the shoulders of giants who professed the faith during the darkest of circumstances.
Today, SASRA continues the mission that inspired the likes of Frank William Marshall, and others inscribed on the Menin Gate: sharing the hope of the gospel with those who serve in our Armed Forces.
