Amazing Mike was a hero in real life

BACK in 1943 the Wizard comic invented the fictitious ‘wonder’ sportsman William Wilson who was brought up on the Yorkshire Moors where he developed unearthly stamina, strength and skill and you wonder if they had Giggleswick’s finest, Robert ‘Mike’ Marshall in mind.

Marshall developed into a phenomenal all-round sportsman during his time in the Yorkshire Dales between 1931 and 1936 and was emerging as the next Wavell Wakefield for England when war struck after he had just turned 21.

A courageous Lt Commander he served in the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve and was awarded the DSC and bar for bravery while captaining a gunboat during the hostilities.

At Giggleswick, as well as being head boy, he was a member of the First XV for four years and the First XI for three years, captaining the side in 1935. He also captained the school’s golf team and was the school’s heavyweight boxing champion. In that final year he also won the 100 yard sprint, 120 yard hurdles and shot putt.

On going up to Trinity College Oxford he starred for the strong First XV as a Freshman, won three straight Blues and was the captain elect for the 1939-40 season when war was declared. After just five Tests for England at No.8 he was already being compared with Wakefield for his pace and athleticism, on one occasion sprinting 50 yards to score a memorable try against Ireland

Marshall joined the RNVR and won his first DSC in 1943 for leading an action against 30 German torpedo boats which concluded with him ramming one of them while firing on and disabling another.

Between January and March 1944 he was involved in numerous hazardous cross Channel covert operations, often ferrying agents to the European mainland and picking up over 100 airmen who had been shot down but evaded arrest by the Germans. He was awarded a second DSC for this invaluable work but his luck, alas, ran out in tragic circumstances just five days after peace was declared on May 8, 1945.

Marshall and his crew volunteered for what should have been a routine ‘bus trip’ taking a group of mercantile captains to Gothenburg where they were to take control of liberated ships. At the dark of night his boat ran into a rogue mine which blew the vessel apart with just two of the 28 men on board surviving. He had been due to take up a teaching job at Giggleswick at the start of the next Christmas term.