Pioneer Eugene Marshall, Christmas 1916

In December 1916 my grandfather, Eugene Marshall was a member of 9th Field Coy., Royal Engineers. Originally from Leicester he had moved to Warrington, Lancashire where he met and married my grandmother, Ellen Wycherley. In 1916 he was stationed with his company, part of the IV Division somewhere in the region of the French towns of Bapaume and Peronne which were still in German hands although the front line had been pushed out towards them between July and November, during the battle of the Somme. As Christmas was near Eugene sent my grandmother a IV Division Chrstmas card and wrote in it, "from Gene in the trenches with love to Nellie." Shortly after receiving this card my grandmother must have received notification that Eugene had been killed on 21st December. There were 4 daughters in the family but early in 1917 a fifth daughter was born who was named Eugenia. Eugene was buried in the cemetery in Sailly-Saillisel, a small village on the road between Bapaume and Peronne. In 1928 my grandmother went on a visit organised for relatives of the dead by The British Legion to the British Cemeteries where she and others took many photographs.