TRIBUTE PAID

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 141, 11 December 1935, Page 13

TRIBUTE PAID

LATE CAPTAIN MARSHALL

RESOLUTION PASSED

Opportunity was taken at a special general meeting of the Karori Defence Rifle Club held last night to pay tribute to the memory of its late president; Captain H. T. Marshall, MX!., whose association with the club had extended over many years.

The following resolution was passed, members standing.in silence:—

"This special general meeting of the club records with great regret the death of the club's president, Captain H. T. Marshall, M.C., which occurred on November 7, 1935.

"The late Captain Marshall was first elected as president of the club in 1910. He held the office continuously up to 1916, when, in consequence of his enlistment with the New Zealand Expeditionary Forces, he elected to relinquish the office. On his return in 1919, after having served with distinction in the Great War, he was unanimously re-elected to the president's chair, holding the office till 1925, when he became senior deputy president. In 1931 his services as president were again made available, and he was once more elected unanimously to that office—a position which he continued to hold up to the time of his death.

"In executive matters connected with rifle shooting outside the club the late Captain Marshall was a real source of strength in the promotion of rifle shooting throughout New Zealand. He was primarily responsible for the formation of the New Zealand Rifle Clubs' executive some twenty-odd years ago, a body which from time to time has been successful in preserving to rifle clubs in New Zealand many of their privileges. He was elected chairman of the executive at its inception, and from that time onwards his claims to that office were never in question. In his capacity as chairman of that body he was always the guiding influence, and the master mind in tiding rifle clubs through their many difficulties.

"When the status of the New Zealand rifle championship meeting was in serious danger in 1922 our late club president, as chairman of the New Zealand Rifle Club's Executive, was the outstanding figure in securing" its restoration to a firmer footing. This was accomplished almost entirely through his own indefatigable exertions towards the establishment of our present National Rifle Association. The late Captain Marshall was elected as the first chairman of the executive committee of the N.R.A. Council, and he held office in that position up to 1934.

"As a marksman he was in the first grade, and was one of the few who had the ability to combine accuracy with speed. In 1910 he was selected as a member of the New Zealand team which defeated New South Wales in the match for the Gordon Highlanders' trophy—a trophy competed for under service conditions by the States of the Australian Commonwealth and New Zealand. In the following year on account of his excellent shooting in local competitions, his many supporters inaugurated a fund towards sending him to England for the purpose of competing at the Bisley meeting. In 1929 he was appointed commander of the New Zealand . rifle team which visited Melbourne for the Victorian Rifle Association's meeting, where, as non-shooting captain, he led the team to victory against the interstate Australian teams in both the Interstate Service Teams Match and the Long Range Teams Match, while in the teams match fired under Kolapore Cup conditions he led his team to within one point of the winning State.

"Our late president always had the interests of the younger marksmen mostly at heart and many a member of the club has owed his success to the encouragement and assistance given by him.

"This general meeting of the club expresses its condolences with Mrs. Marshall and the relatives of its late president."

Mr. R. Caughley, deputy president, was unanimously elected the club's new president, and Rifleman R. Randell was appointed to the position of deputy president.