James Eglinton Marshall

James Eglinton Marshall was born around 1918, the son of Engineer-Commander Hugh Haddow Marshall RNR and Daisy Miriam Marshall of Dover; his childhood was spent in the Gold Coast Colony in West Africa. He received a short-service commission in the Royal Air Force in June 1939 and joined No. 85 Squadron, flying Hawker Hurricanes from the outbreak of war. During the Battle of Britain he proved himself an aggressive fighter pilot: on 18 August 1940 he collided with a Heinkel He 111 over Kent, and eleven days later he shot down a Messerschmitt Bf 109; by the end of the campaign he had contributed to twenty-four of the squadron’s confirmed victories. His record was recognised when the Distinguished Flying Cross was gazetted in the London Gazette on 29 April 1941. Following this operational tour he was appointed to command No. 1452 (Turbinlite) Flight at RAF West Malling in July 1941, leading the unit through its experimental campaign of night intruder operations using Turbinlite-equipped Douglas Havoc and Boston aircraft intended to illuminate enemy bombers for accompanying fighters. He was killed on 18 April 1942, aged twenty-three, when his Douglas Boston III (serial W8276) crashed near Priory Farm, Widford, while returning to West Malling; two passengers perished with him. He is buried at Maidstone Cemetery, Kent.