Margot Marshall (1 May 1918 – 21 September 2010) was the first British woman officer to land in occupied Europe after

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 ...

. A member of the

Auxiliary Territorial Service The Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS; often pronounced as an acronym) was the women's branch of the British Army during the World War II, Second World War. It was formed on 9 September 1938, initially as a women's voluntary service, and existe ...

(ATS) 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 ...

, she later was involved in organising the British delegation at the Potsdam Conference.Obituary for Margot Cooper
''

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 found ...

'', 23 November 2010 Margot Cooper: wartime ATS officer
''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'', 25 November 2010

Early life

Born as Margaret Campbell Marshall in

Fowey Fowey ( ; , meaning ''beech trees'') is a port town and civil parishes in England, civil parish at the mouth of the River Fowey in south Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The town has been in existence since well before the Norman invasion, ...

Cornwall Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...

in 1918, she was one of four children of her father, who died when she was aged 3. Her mother never remarried and shuttled her family between their homes in

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( , ; abbreviated Glos.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Herefordshire to the north-west, Worcestershire to the north, Warwickshire to the north-east, Oxfordshire ...

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 ...

and

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

. Marshall grew up with a passion for all country pursuits, and she became an enthusiastic horsewoman. She gained a good working knowledge of French and German. Because of her peripatetic upbringing she had attended seven schools by the time she gained her School Certificate.

Military service

On leaving school she worked as a social worker in a Dr Barnardo's Home at

Barkingside Barkingside is an area in Ilford, in the London Borough of Redbridge. It includes the major road junction of Fullwell Cross, which also gives its name to the locality near that roundabout. The area is situated 10.6 miles (17km) north east of Ch ...

. On the declaration of war in 1939 the children in the home were evacuated to

Colchester Colchester ( ) is a city in northeastern Essex, England. It is the second-largest settlement in the county, with a population of 130,245 at the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 Census. The demonym is ''Colcestrian''. Colchester occupies the ...

, and Marshall joined the

(ATS). In 1939 she was serving with 5th (London) Motor Company based at Tendring Hall near Colchester.Margaret C Marshall in 1939 England and Wales Register - The National Archives Here Marshall initially served as a driver, ferrying senior officers around secret sites close to

Southwold Southwold is a seaside town and civil parish on the North Sea, in the East Suffolk District, East Suffolk district, in the county of Suffolk, England. It lies at the mouth of the River Blyth, Suffolk, River Blyth in the Suffolk Coast and Heaths ...

Suffolk Suffolk ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Norfolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Essex to the south, and Cambridgeshire to the west. Ipswich is the largest settlement and the county ...

. This was followed by a period as an ambulance driver based at Colchester Military Hospital in

Colchester Garrison Colchester Garrison is a major garrison located in Colchester in the county of Essex, eastern England. It has been an important military base since the Roman Britain, Roman era. The first permanent military garrison in Colchester was establishe ...

. Following training at an

Officers' Training Corps The University Officers' Training Corps (UOTC), also known as the Officers' Training Corps (OTC), are British Army reserve units, under the command of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, which recruit exclusively from universities and focus on ...

(OTC) unit in

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

Marshall received a commission and was posted to

Anti-Aircraft Command Anti-Aircraft Command (AA Command, or "Ack-Ack Command") was a British Army command of the Second World War that controlled the Territorial Army anti-aircraft artillery and searchlight formations and units defending the United Kingdom. Origin ...

, initially at 584 Battery RA near

Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, situated south of Leeds and east of Manchester. The city is the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire and some of its so ...

and after, as a Junior Commander (Captain) to 606 Battery RA on the

Sussex Sussex (Help:IPA/English, /ˈsʌsɪks/; from the Old English ''Sūþseaxe''; lit. 'South Saxons'; 'Sussex') is an area within South East England that was historically a kingdom of Sussex, kingdom and, later, a Historic counties of England, ...

coast, where she saw much action. For a short period she commanded the battery while her senior officer was on leave. In March 1944 Marshall requested an overseas posting, and offered to accept a demotion in rank if this was necessary. Reverting to the rank of Subaltern, she joined the 1st Continental Group ATS group, attached to HQ 21st Army Group. In early June 1944 Subaltern Marshall was ordered to attend a secret meeting at the Lyric Theatre in

Hammersmith Hammersmith is a district of West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, and identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. It ...

where she was among the officers being briefed about details for

by General

Bernard Montgomery Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein (; 17 November 1887 – 24 March 1976), nicknamed "Monty", was a senior British Army officer who served in the First World War, the Irish War of Independence and the ...

himself.

Landing in France

Following her appointment as Officer in Charge of an elite advance group of 30 members of 1st Continental Group ATS, in late July 1944 Marshall and her group crossed the Channel in secret in a tank carrier which landed on the beach at

Courseulles-sur-Mer Courseulles-sur-Mer (, ), commonly known as ''Courseulles'', is a commune in the Calvados department, Normandy, northwestern France. Until 1957, the town's name was simply ''Courseulles''. It lies 3 km west of Bernières-sur-Mer and 18&n ...

- the site of Juno Beach. This made Marshall the first British woman officer to land in occupied Europe after D-Day.Papers relating to the service of Junior Commander Margot Marshall

National Army Museum The National Army Museum is the British Army's central museum. It is located in the Chelsea district of central London, adjacent to the Royal Hospital Chelsea, the home of the " Chelsea Pensioners". The museum is a non-departmental public bod ...

online archive At Courseulles-sur-Mer Marshall and her group set up camp among the ruins of

Bayeux Bayeux (, ; ) is a commune in the Calvados department in Normandy in northwestern France. Bayeux is the home of the Bayeux Tapestry, which depicts the events leading up to the Norman Conquest of England in 1066. It is also known as the fir ...

, near to the front line. The remaining 482 women of 1st Continental Group, made up of three companies including cooks, drivers and Marshall's E Company of clerks, joined the advance party about a month later. September 1944 saw the entire camp move from

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 ...

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

where they received a heroes' welcome. In Brussels Marshall was billeted in a building which only a few days before had been the headquarters of the local

Gestapo The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, abbreviated Gestapo (), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of F ...

. In Spring 1945 senior Allied and

Wehrmacht The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the German Army (1935–1945), ''Heer'' (army), the ''Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmac ...

officers met to discuss the worsening food shortages in the northern Netherlands. A temporary truce having been agreed, Marshall, appointed Junior Commander, was posted to 3rd Continental Group ATS, Netherlands District. Here she formed K Company to obtain and distribute supplies of food to the starving Dutch population. Being driven around the Netherlands in her staff car could be perilous, and once Marshall found herself dangling in it over a river, her male driver not having seen that the retreating Germans had detonated a bridge. On being told of her close shave, General Alexander Galloway offered to allow her to travel in his private aeroplane. Marshall went to the concentration camp at

Bergen-Belsen Bergen-Belsen (), or Belsen, was a Nazi concentration camp in what is today Lower Saxony in Northern Germany, northern Germany, southwest of the town of Bergen, Lower Saxony, Bergen near Celle. Originally established as a prisoner of war camp, ...

shortly after it had been liberated. This experience left a lasting impression on her. In the camp hospital she found a boy whose family believed him to be dead. She was able to find his family in

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , ; ; ) is the second-largest List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city in the Netherlands after the national capital of Amsterdam. It is in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, part of the North S ...

and deliver a letter to them from him.

Potsdam Conference

During the preparations for the Potsdam Conference Marshall received a telegram asking her to report to

Bad Oeynhausen Bad Oeynhausen () is a spa town on the southern edge of the Wiehengebirge in the district of Minden-Lübbecke in the Ostwestfalen-Lippe, East-Westphalia-Lippe region of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The closest larger towns are Bielefeld (39 ki ...

. Here she was ordered to put together a temporary company to take care of the British delegation at the conference. Having personally chosen about 140 volunteers from the

, Marshall flew by Dakota to

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

where she joined the Cabinet Office team, and for five weeks supervised her team at

Potsdam Potsdam () is the capital and largest city of the Germany, German States of Germany, state of Brandenburg. It is part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. Potsdam sits on the Havel, River Havel, a tributary of the Elbe, downstream of B ...

. Among her duties was finding suitable accommodation for the British personnel. She was in a box during the Berlin Victory Parade in September 1945. Marshall was demobilised from the Army in April 1946.

Later life

In 1946 Marshall married her long-time admirer Major Vincent John Cochran Cooper (1913–2006). A month after the marriage the couple sailed for India, where John Cooper had been posted. The couple had four children: Michael, and twins Timothy and Joanna followed by James Cooper. On their birth in 1950 these were the heaviest recorded British twins at 4.5 and 4.3 kilograms respectively. Army auxiliary officer set a number of firsts
''

The Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper published in Sydney, Australia, and owned by Nine Entertainment. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuous ...

'', 29 November 2010 After her husband left the Army in 1958 the family moved to Sussex, where John Cooper ran a

ship chandler A ship chandler is a retail dealer who specializes in providing supplies or equipment for ships. Synopsis For traditional sailing ships, items that could be found in a chandlery include sail-cloth, rosin, turpentine, tar, pitch, linseed oil ...

s. Despite her seasickness Marshall accepted her husband's passion for boats. On his retirement from the chandlers the couple would spend their summer holidays sailing in the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...

before settling in Anglesey. Here they supported the

Royal National Lifeboat Institution The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) is the largest of the lifeboat (rescue), lifeboat services operating around the coasts of the United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland, Ireland, the Channel Islands, and the Isle of Man, as well as on s ...

(RNLI), John Cooper as Secretary and Margot Marshall as a fundraiser. In 2010 she was awarded the RNLI's gold medal. Margaret Campbell Cooper died in Horndean Hants on 21st September 2010 aged 92. Her collection of 65 wartime photographs are held by the

,Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden with delegates to the Potsdam Conference, July 1945

online archive as is an archive of 38 papers relating to her military career.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Marshall, Margot 1918 births 2010 deaths People from Fowey British Army personnel of World War II Auxiliary Territorial Service officers