Have You a Tiger In Your Family?

Rank : RSM

Army Number : 4856588

Unit : 1st Bn

Biography :

Enlisted at Loughborough, 20.4.1932 in the Territorial Army Leicestershire Regiment. Discharged 3.12.1933 under 199/6a Territorial Army Regulations. Re-enlisted 12.6.1934. Appointed Unpaid Lance Corporal 5.5.1939. Re-engaged 11.1.1947 to complete years. Served with the 2nd Bn up to 1948, and then with the 1st Bn. Listed as Warrant Officer class II in 1951. Later served as R.S.M. with the 1st Bn. Service included Palestine, Cyprus, North Africa, U.K., Crete, Syria, Ceylon, India, Germany, Hong Kong and Sudan. Awarded M.B.E. (L.G. 30.9.1958), M.S.M. (1962) and Long Service and Good Conduct Medal. Discharged 14.9.1961. Died November 2002.

Some of above information from private source.

Born at Loughborough in 1916, the son of one of the Regiment's most famous warriors, also Thomas Marston, who had won three Military Medals in the First World war. Tom Marston joined the battalion age 15 and by 1934 was a regular. In October 1937 he married Ethel, also a child of the regiment. He first saw action in 1938-39 in Palestine during the Arab Rebellion, and in 1940-45 he was in North Africa fighting in the early desert battles of the Second World War.

In 1941 his battalion moved to Crete and fought against the German paratroopers. From the hard fighting in Crete they returned to North Africa and fought in defence of Tobruk, then via Syria to Ceylon where, after a year the Battlion was warned for operatations as part of Wingate's Chindits. It was the Tigers' columns that led the advance to river Chindwin behind Japanese lines, across 5,000 foot jungle clad mountains without tracks. The achievement drew a signal from General Wingate his admiring signal: "Well done the Leicestershire Regiment, Hannibal eclipsed".

In 1944 after much active service Tom Marston was sent back to England to train young soldiers. After the war he was posted to the 1st Battlion with whom he went to Hong Kong and Korea where he saw action this time as a company sergeant major of Support Company. In 1953 Tom was appointed Regimental Sergeant Major, that year attending the Queen's Coronation Parade. Later the Battalion was in the Sudan, the last British Regiment there, and Tom was responsible for a series of ceremonial parades to mark the handover.

From Sudan, (his family with him) went in 1955 to Cyprus to take part in two and a half years of internal security operations. For his outstanding contribution Tom was appointed a member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire. Then back to England for a final tour of duty. Tom's Commanding Officer of that time, Colonel Mike Pallot, said of him: "Tom Marston is simply splendid, he was the most efficient, competent Regimental Sergeant Major that any Regiment could have had."

Tom retired from the Army in Germany after 29 years of service with the Tigers, for seven of which he was the RSM, and, was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal for his unblemished record. He had fought in no less than five of the battles and campaigns for which the Regiment was awarded the Battle Honours: Sidi Barrani, North Africa, Crete, Chindits and Korea. He died on the morning of Remembrance Sunday 2002.

Son of Sgt Thomas Marston MM** who served in the Regiment during WWI.

Date of Birth : 1916

Date of Death : Nov 2002

Period of Service : 1932-61

Conflicts : WW2, Korean War, Cyprus Emergency

Places Served : Palestine, Egypt, Crete, Libya, Syria, Celon, India, Burma, Hong Kong, Korea, The Sudan, Cyprus, Germany