Albert "Smiler" Marshall

[Arthur]

Hi,

Below is part of the missing attachment that I tried to send yesterday:

First World War cavalry veteran gets telegram from Queen

Smiler marks 108th birthday

BRITAIN'S only surviving First World War cavalry soldier has celebrated his 108th birthday.

Elmstead Market-born Albert "Smiler" Marshall, thought to be Britain's second oldest man, reached the landmark anniversary last week.

He has got five telegrams from the Queen - for his 100th and 105th birthdays, and one for every year since.

Now living in Ashtead, Surrey, Mr Marshall was born in 1897, five years before Queen Victoria's death.

His mother Helen had consumption and he was cared for by three cousins, starting school at just 2 Mi.

Passionate about horses all his life, he got his first riding lesson at the age of five from a man who agreed only on the condition that he first mount a goat, "facing backwards with my arms under the flank".

After a spell in the Wivenhoe shipyards, Mr Marshall later ran various stables and was the “terrier man” for the Essex and Suffolk hunt.

When the First World War began, he joined the Essex Yeomanry and was given his nickname during training, when a sergeant threw a snowball to rebuke him and yelled: "Hey, Smiler... I am talking to you."

Summoned to the front line, the young soldier saw most of his friends killed as he took part in cavalry charges with drawn swords.

He once said: "The cavalry's job in winter was to hold the front line.

"There were three lines of trenches, mud and devastation."

After the war, Mr Marshall married his childhood sweetheart, Florence - who died in 1983 - and the pair had five children, only one of whom still survives.

Mr Marshall has 12 grand-children, 24 great grandchildren and 4 great- great grandchildren.

Evening Gazette, Tuesday, March 22, 2005

Regards

Arthur

[Guest Simon Bull]

What is still (for a few) memory passes that little bit closer to being "just" history.

[InkyBill]

So sorry to hear that Albert 'Smiler' Marshall has died, i'm late in posting as i don't get to visit the forum much lately so have only just heard the news.

I wrote to Albert some time ago and Graham replied along with a picture of Albert. My son 'Sam' was born on 15th March 2004, Albert's 107th birthday, i always wanted to get a picture of the two of them together but never got around to it, now it's too late.

When Sam is older i'll tell him about Albert who for me, although i never met him, fired my imagination about WW1. I know there is still a few veterans left out there but i always felt that once Albert passed on that would really be it for those who were there, maybe its because he was the last Essex man and the last from a cavalry regiment.

God bless you Albert and thank you so much

Cheers

Marc