A. G. Tansley. 
8 1 
ALBERT STANLEY MARSH. 1 
N January 6th, Captain A. S. Marsh of the 8th (Service) 
Battalion of the Somerset Light Infantry was shot through 
the heart by a sniper as he was passing a gap in the trend) parapet 
near Armentieres. Marsh was not 24 years old when he died and 
in him we have lost a botanist full of love for his subject and of 
promise for the future. 
Marsh was the son of Mr. W. W. Marsh of Blacknell, Crew- 
kerne, in Somerset, where he was born on February 1st, 1892. 
He entered Sexey’s School at Bruton in 1903 with a Junior County 
Scholarship, and was a great success throughout his School career 
both in examinations and in the general life of the school. He 
gained two more county scholarships and also first-class honours in 
the Senior Oxford Local Examination, and took a conspicuous part 
in the school debating society and in other school activities. His 
headmaster writes that “ his energy was amazing and he never 
appeared to find work a burden.” In his third year, Marsh began 
to take a keen interest in natural history and started with great 
enthusiasm on the geology and botany of the district, making large 
collections of fossils and plants for school prizes. Among his close 
school friends were several boys who did well in science at the 
Universities and are now doing successful research. 
Marsh also showed a marked talent for languages, both at 
school and later. For instance, he “ got up ” Greek for the Little- 
Go in a very short time (neither Greek nor Latin are included in 
the ordinary curriculum of the school), and later on he very quickly 
acquired a good working knowledge of German and French, spoken 
as well as written, in a way that impressed one as the way of a 
real linguist. 
Marsh was considered a delicate boy when he first went to 
school, and was never an athlete, though his health rapidly 
improved, but he was a tireless walker, and always played a good 
game of fives, that favourite of so many students. 
In December, 1908, while still under 17, Marsh entered for the 
scholarship examination in natural science at Trinity, Cambridge, 
and his work in botany was really wonderful for a boy of his age. 
At the time it was hard to be sure how far his high standard of 
knowledge was due to real scientific ability and how far to the 
excellent and careful teaching for which his school is well known. 
1 The writer has received valuable help from several of Marsh’s friends at 
Cambridge as well as from the headmaster of his school. 
