W C MARSHALL

W C MARSHALL BLUE PLAQUE

The Society's third plaque was erected at Leigh Heights, The Hindhead Music Centre, Hindhead Road in September 2008. W C Marshall was a good all round athlete and played both real and lawn tennis, the latter for Cambridge against Oxford three years running in 1870, 1871 and 1872. In addition he was an amateur figure skater and even wrote a pocket book for figure skaters. He lost the very first Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Final in 1877 to Spencer Gore 6-1, 6-2, 6-4. The match took 50 minutes and was attended by a formally dressed crowd of about 200 people who paid a shilling each to stand and watch. A field of 22 competitors had assembled to play, and had to finish by Thursday because an important cricket match was scheduled for Friday.

Marshall was also a successful architect and he designed and built 'Tweenways' on the Hindhead Road as his weekend retreat in 1887. The house was later re-named 'Leigh Heights' and is now the home of the Hindhead Music Centre. In 1908, when he retired, he came to live permanently at Tweenways.

He was very active in the local community, becoming a member of the Shottermill Parish Council, chairman of the Hindhead and District Electric Light Company, and served on the Hindhead Commons Committee.

He was also chairman of the School Care Committee inaugurating the Shottermill Dental Clinic. Being a friend of Charles Darwin he developed an interest in eugenics, at a time when the subject had not yet achieved its current notoriety, and founded the local branch of the Eugenics Education Society. His wife Margaret was one of the first active advocates of Women's Suffrage.

Their daughter Frances Partridge, who died in 2004 at the age of 103, was an eminent writer and literary journalist. She was the last surviving member of the Bloomsbury Group.