not credited with being the last veteran of the opening day; nonetheless, he remembered the trauma and horror of that campaign and the images on the battlefield remained with him. He later recalled picking up and sending home the letters found next to the body of a man killed near Mametz Wood. In March 1917, Marshall suffered a blighty wound in the hand and was sent home. On his return he joined the Machine Gun Corps and fought at the Battle of Cambrai where he was captured as a Prisoner of War by the Germans. Smiler was released by his captors as they were short of rations and returned to the front. When the war ended in 1918, Marshall volunteered for a tour of duty in Ireland and was stationed near Dublin. He was demobbed in 1921 and returned home to Tendring where he married Florence C. Day. The couple had five children. In his later years, Marshall continued to live in a small house, which was attached to a larger house in which he had worked for the owner since the Second World War. He kept by his bedside a wooden cross taken from the rubble of Albert Basilica at the time of the Battle of Somme. In the final decade of his life, Marshall was awarded the Legion d’honneur and appeared on numerous television shows as well as attending a veterans' party at Buckingham Palace. He also took part in three pilgrimages to the battlefields of the First World War, including one to mark the 80th anniversary of the Third Battle of Ypres. Marshall died at the age of 108 on 16 May 2005 in Ashtead, Surrey. At the time of his death he was survived by one son; twelve grandchildren; twenty-four great-grandchildren and four great-great-grandchildren. Marshall's legacy as one of the last surviving veterans of the First World War was that he was able to claim a number of records: the last man to wear the 1914-15 Star; the last man to serve on the Somme and perhaps, the most significant for a man who had served in the Essex Yeomanry, the last man to have served in the cavalry. References Further reading Arthur, Max. The Last Post (2005) External links Essex Yeomanry soldiers Machine Gun Corps soldiers English centenarians Men centenarians British Army personnel of World War I British military personnel of the Irish War of