Rank: Second Lieutenant Regiment: 9th Bn., Royal Warwickshire Regiment Died: Tuesday 10 August 1915 Cemetery: Helles Memorial, Turkey

In unpublished papers held at the Churchill Archives in Cambridge William Slim (Slim of Burma) writes of the 9^th Battalion of the RWR (the battalion he joined as a temporary second lieutenant in 1914): "The gulf that might have existed between the regular and temporary officers in the early days was never very noticeable, largely, I think, because on the whole both came from then same social stratum, the professional middle class. I never saw any inclination on the part of our regulars towards snobbishness. One dug-out major it is true did indulge in unpleasant sarcasm about "temporary gentlemen"; with especial venom towards a subaltern in his company whose social polish was somewhat lacking. "Remember Mr A, you are supposed to be an officer and a gentleman. At least you are an officer." A few months later his unfortunate butt, twice wounded at the head of his platoon in the desperate assault on Sari Bair, Gallipoli, refused to go back, and, hit a third time, was killed, still leading his men. A record that compared favourably with that of his tormentor."

It seems certain that the tormentor was Major Grey d’Estoville Herbert Fullerton (a "dug-out" retired from the Militia) who, as a temporary Lieutenant-Colonel with the 9^th RWR in Mesopotamia in 1916, was twice charged with neglect to the prejudice of good order and discipline and found guilty on the charge of failing to reform his column and marching with it complete after it was attacked by Arabs. He was returned to England and put in charge of a POW camp.

Of the three subalterns killed on 9^th and 10^th August during the asault Slim refers to the most likely candidate for the sarcasm is Marson. Of the other two Grigson (a Ceylon tea-planter) died while tending to a wounded Slim. Kemp had gone out to Canada as a rancher and his background (public school OTC, son of a clergyman, ex-Public Schools Battalion) makes it unlikely that he would not be considered by people like Fullerton as a "gentleman". Marson was unusual in the 9^th in being the product of a grammar school rather than a public school. As far as records are available he was one of just two. His home address sounds decidedly ungrand:- Belgrave Cottage, 188 Villa Street, Aston. He had been a member of Birmingham University OTC and it is most likely that he and Slim knew each other from that time. (Although Slim was not an member of Birmingham University he joined their OTC in 1912.) Slim refers elsewhere in his memoirs to Marson. He writes that most of the temporary officers were University men or Ceylon tea-planters or "odds like me and Marsden (sic)".

If anyone is interested in the 9^th Battalion of the RWR I would be glad to hear from him or her.