Howard Percival Marshall (22 August 1900 at

Sutton Sutton (''south settlement'' or ''south town'' in Old English) may refer to: Places United Kingdom England In alphabetical order by county: * Sutton, Bedfordshire * Sutton, Berkshire, a List of United Kingdom locations: Stu-Sz#Su, location * S ...

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

– ) achieved distinction in several fields, but is best remembered as a pioneering commentator for live broadcasts of state occasions and sporting events — in particular

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

Test matches Test match in some sports refers to a sporting contest between national representative teams and may refer to: * Test cricket * Indoor cricket, Test match (indoor cricket) * Test match (rugby union) * Test match (rugby league) * Test match (associa ...

— for

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during the 1930s.

Life

Marshall was the only son of publisher Percival Marshall and Zoe Beatrice (née Bridger). After Haileybury, he went to

Oriel College, Oxford Oriel College () is Colleges of the University of Oxford, a constituent college of the University of Oxford in Oxford, England. Located in Oriel Square, the college has the distinction of being the oldest royal foundation in Oxford (a title for ...

, winning a

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

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. He captained the Harlequins rugby team. He trained as a journalist, and joined the BBC in 1927. Within ten years he had become the premier radio

Outside Broadcast Outside or Outsides may refer to: * Wilderness Books and magazines * ''Outside'', a book by Marguerite Duras * Outside (magazine), ''Outside'' (magazine), an outdoors magazine Film, theatre and TV * Outside TV (formerly RSN Television), a televi ...

commentator, being chosen to describe the

coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth The coronation of the British monarch, coronation of George VI and his wife, Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, Elizabeth, as King of the United Kingdom, king and List of British royal consorts, queen of the United Kingdom and Commonwealth realm, ...

in 1937, as well as that of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953. The live broadcasting of cricket had begun, in a limited fashion, in 1927, with ‘eye witness’ summaries by

Pelham Warner Sir Pelham Francis Warner, (2 October 1873 – 30 January 1963), affectionately and better known as Plum Warner or "the Grand Old Man" of English cricket, was a Test cricketer and cricket administrator. He was knighted for services to sport ...

, as it was generally thought that ball-by-ball commentary would not work for a game as slow as cricket. However, this began to change around 1932 when the influential

Seymour de Lotbiniere Seymour Joly de Lotbiniere (21 October 1905 – 6 November 1984) known as "Lobby" was a Director of the British Broadcasting Corporation and pioneer of outside broadcasts. He is recognised as developing the technique of sports commentary on r ...

('Lobby’) - who became BBC's Head of Outside Broadcasting in 1935 - began to believe that ball-by-ball commentary could make compelling radio. In 1934, he got Marshall to begin commentating on cricket, rather than just giving reports. Marshall was a great success, the poet

Edmund Blunden Edmund Charles Blunden (1 November 1896 – 20 January 1974) was an English poet, author, and critic. Like his friend Siegfried Sassoon, he wrote of his experiences in World War I in both verse and prose. For most of his career, Blunden was als ...

writing: ''"And then on the air, Mr Howard Marshall makes every ball bowled, every shifting of a fieldsman so fertile with meaning that any wireless set may make a subtle cricket student of anybody."'' He commentated on some of the "

Victory Tests The Victory Tests were a series of cricket matches played in England from 19 May to 22 August 1945, between a combined Australian Services XI and an English national side. The first match began less than two weeks after the end of World War II ...

" in 1945, assisted by Rex Alston, but had moved on to higher things in the BBC when real Test cricket resumed the following year. Nine of his cricket commentaries over the period 1934 to 1945 survive in the BBC archives, including his famous description of

Len Hutton Sir Leonard Hutton (23 June 1916 – 6 September 1990) was an English cricketer. He played as an Batting order (cricket)#Opening batsmen, opening batsman for Yorkshire County Cricket Club from 1934 to 1955 and for England national cricket team ...

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in 1938 surpassing

Don Bradman Sir Donald George Bradman (27 August 1908 – 25 February 2001), nicknamed "The Don", was an Australian international cricketer, widely acknowledged as the greatest batsman of all time. His cricketing successes have been claimed by Shane ...

's record score of 334 in Anglo-Australian Tests. As well as cricket, he also commentated on

boxing Boxing is a combat sport and martial art. Taking place in a boxing ring, it involves two people – usually wearing protective equipment, such as boxing glove, protective gloves, hand wraps, and mouthguards – throwing Punch (combat), punch ...

and rugby. He wrote cricket and rugby reports for the

Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was foun ...

for some years. He provided the commentary on two documentary short films, and was the voice of a radio cricket commentator in the feature film '' A Matter of Life and Death''. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

he became the first Director of Public Relations at the Ministry of Food from 1940 to 1943, then Director of War Reporting and a

war correspondent A war correspondent is a journalist who covers stories first-hand from a war, war zone. War correspondence stands as one of journalism's most important and impactful forms. War correspondents operate in the most conflict-ridden parts of the wor ...

. He famously broadcast from a

Normandy Normandy (; or ) is a geographical and cultural region in northwestern Europe, roughly coextensive with the historical Duchy of Normandy. Normandy comprises Normandy (administrative region), mainland Normandy (a part of France) and insular N ...

beach immediately after the

D-Day The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during the Second World War. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as ...

landings. A snippet of the outside broadcast he made on the

VE Day Victory in Europe Day is the day celebrating the formal acceptance by the Allies of World War II of Germany's unconditional surrender of its armed forces on Tuesday, 8 May 1945; it marked the official surrender of all German military operations ...

celebrations in London survives.Radio archive, Item 204 - Marshall live outside broadcast on 8 May 1945 (VE Day)
Retrieved 16 March 2010. He married twice (including

Nerina Shute Nerina Shute (17 July 1908 – 20 October 2004) was an English writer and journalist, described by the ''Sunday Times'' as "the amazingly colourful, brilliant and bisexual film critic". Twice married, she wrote always as Nerina Shute, and the sur ...

) and found time to work as a Director of Personnel and Public Relations in the steel industry, to write several books on sport, housing and exploration, amongst other subjects, and to co-found the magazines ''Angling Times'' and ''Trout and Salmon''.

Bibliography

His books included: *''Rugger Stories'' (editor), Putnam, 1932. *''Cricket Stories'' (editor), Putnam, 1933. *''Edward the Eighth - Our King'' (introduction), Allied Newspapers Ltd, 1936 *''Under Big Ben: English Reveries'' (author) Longmans, Green and Co, 1937 *''Over to Tunis: The First Eyewitness Story of the Tunisian Campaign'', Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1943. *''Oxford v Cambridge: The story of the university rugby match'', Clarke & Cockeran, 1951. *''Coronation Day, 1953'', Hutchinson, 1953. *''Reflections on a River'', HF & G Witherby, 1967, .

References

Christopher Martin-Jenkins Christopher Dennis Alexander Martin-Jenkins, Order of the British Empire, MBE (20 January 1945 – 1 January 2013), also known as CMJ, was a British cricket journalist and a President of Marylebone Cricket Club, MCC. He was also the longest serv ...

: ''Ball by Ball: The Story of Cricket Broadcasting'', Grafton Books, 1990, , pp45–6
TMS Legends: Howard Marshall
* ttp://thescotsman.scotsman.com/s2.cfm?id=642962003 Review of "The Forgotten Broadcaster" (a Radio 4 programme about Marshall) {{DEFAULTSORT:Marshall, Howard (broadcaster) 1900 births 1973 deaths Alumni of Oriel College, Oxford Boxing commentators British fishermen English male journalists English monarchists English radio personalities English reporters and correspondents English sports broadcasters British war correspondents Cricketers from Surrey English cricket commentators English rugby union commentators English rugby union players Harlequin F.C. players Rugby union players from Surrey 20th-century English sportsmen