Soldier Record

Stanley Marshall was in the 2/8th Batttalion (Ardwick) of the Manchester Regiment. Piecing together information from postcard albums of the time, it would seem that he was in the 8th Reserve Battalion before leaving for France on 27th September 1916. Training was carried out at a variety of locations: at Southport from October 1914 to May 1915, moving to Crowborough in June, Margate in July and August, Ashford in September until the end of 1915, Tilbury Fort, Essex, in early 1916, Weybourne Camp in Norfolk from June to July 1916, Mitchett Musketry Camp in Farnborough briefly in August before moving to Milford in Surrey until September with a final stint at Oswestry from where he left for France.

My grandfather was a POW

Then no more is known until the autumn of 1917 when postcards are received at Friedrichsfeld bei Wesel in Germany, a prisoner of war camp. There are postcards of POWs, including Stanley, in a makeshift hospital, formerly a church, and also some taken in the camp itself. Stanley worked on the railway nearby with other prisoners and suffered a rupture from the work. His final POW camp was Munsterlager in 1918.