Francis Marshall was the son of Francis and Elizabeth Reid Marshall, of Wendonside, Southland, New Zealand.

Operation Orders for the attack on Polderhoek Chateau and grounds were issued on 1 December 1917.The assault was to take place on 3 December with two battalions of the 2nd Infantry Brigade in line, namely the 1st Battalion of Otago and the 1st Battalion of Canterbury. In addition to the artillery barrage which was to support the attack arrangements were made for the operation to be covered by a barrage of machine gun fire, by trench mortars and by a discharge of gas by 4in. Stokes mortars. The attack was not a success and a fatal miscalculation caused the two leading Companies (4th and 10th) to be caught in the destructive fire of their own artillery.Severe losses were incurred. See A.E. Byrne The Official History of the Otago Regiment in the Great War, p. 232ff. and David FergusonThe History of the Canterbury Regiment, NZEF 1914-1919, p. 212ff.There is a good map on p. 216/7 of this book. AWMM