Marshall trailers creator Charles James Marshall

Obituary: Businessman dies at the age of 81

The founder of the largest agricultural trailer manufacturer in the UK, Charles James Marshall, has died at the age of 81.

Charles, who founded Marshall Trailers in 1952, was born in Torphins in 1934.

Following his father’s death, when he was seven, he moved with his family to the Rosemount area of Aberdeen and after leaving Rosemount Secondary School he took on an apprenticeship as a joiner with building firm Coutts and Fraser while at the same time serving his compulsory national service.

Born out of a fear of ever becoming redundant from his job, Charles set about finding additional income streams and he started making small wheelbarrows in his garden shed, which he then sold at the farmers’ mart on a regular basis.

Any spare time was spent making these small barrows, and he soon broadened his manufacturing skills to make hen houses, rabbit hutches and eventually began fitting kitchens in people’s homes.

During a holiday to his uncle’s dairy farm in Strichen, Charles discovered the growing need for trailers to work alongside tractors and it was there that the first ever Marshall trailer was made.

The trailer was made on used wheels, which he borrowed on the basis that the tyre supplier would be paid if the trailer sold, otherwise his wheels would be returned.

The first trailer sold immediately and demand for more trailers grew quickly as tractors became commonplace on farms across the north east.

Trailers were first made in the back garden of Charles’ mother’s tenement in Aberdeen, and in the early 1950s production moved to the company’s present site at Chapel Brae on the A96.

Nowadays the company sells trailers all over the UK and machinery has gone as far afield as Canada, Iceland, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea.

His funeral takes place on Monday at Newhills Parish Church, Bucksburn, and thereafter at Newhills Cemetery.

Charles James Marshall.