Robert Ian ‘Robin’ Marshall, 1932-2020
We were saddened to hear of the passing of ex-Accies captain, Robin Marshall, on Monday 26th October, at the age of 87.
Robin was born in Edinburgh and grew up in Colinton. His father was also Robert Ian but went by his middle name. School was, initially, Edinburgh Academy and then Merchiston Castle, where he won the top literary prize and music prizes. The old boys’ team he captained included future fellow London Scots, Cameron Boyle and Ronnie Lamb, as well as his brothers.
From school, Robin spent his period of National Service in Egypt, guarding the Suez Canal. Patrolling on his Triumph motorbike, as he would tell his son Andrew, “you didn’t hang about when you were riding between patrol posts.”
Duty done, he returned to Edinburgh. His brother John had gone up to Oxford and Robin was also offered a place but Ian, tough and strict, decided Robin was not responsible enough and would be better suited to accountancy! So, Robin ended up staying in Edinburgh and qualified as a CA with Thomas McLintock, now part of KPMG. He moved on to Dewar’s distillery where he became finance director and then to Slater Walker which was then the equivalent of what we would now call a private equity group.
Robin Marshall played in an era when The Accies were a dominant force in Scottish club rugby and was part of the legendary Accies team that won the Unofficial Championship in 1955-6.
Accies 1st XV - Winners of The Unofficial Championship 1955-6
Back: CF Sleigh, JM Barber, RW Meikle, JH Marshall, J Forrest, S Coughtrie, JDL Fairbairn. Middle: T McClung, KW Paterson-Brown, RI Marshall, MTR Marwick (c), HG Hay, DJ Marshall, MJ Sands Front: HMA Rowan, JA Simson
As Robin’s son, Andrew, recalls: ‘David, the eldest, was a hard second rower and John was the hooker, with Dad on the flank. But for a time, his father wouldn’t let him play rugby mid-week while he was meant to be studying for his CA. He would sneak off and play for an invitation side on the Wednesday afternoons under the name of ‘Jock Strap’ but was eventually rumbled when a reporter printed in the papers, that a certain ‘J Strap’ bore an uncanny resemblance to one RI Marshall of Edinburgh Academicals fame.’
Andrew also recalls: ‘There is a nice story of a particularly abrasive match where dad took a nasty shoeing at the bottom of a ruck. When the next ruck occurred, and the whistle blew, the poor chap didn’t get up from the bottom of it. The Marshall brothers had a reputation for looking after each other.’
Robin captained the Club during season 1956-57, passing the captaincy on to his brother, John, the following season during which he played for The Academicals XV versus The International XV to celebrate the Club’s centenary. Accies had a strong pack and he played alongside Mike Marwick and Keith Paterson-Brown in the back row, as well as his two brothers, John at hooker and David in the ‘boiler house’. It was a star-studded line up on both sides, including such legends as Douglas Elliot, Stan Coughtrie, Gilbert and Tommy McClung, Brian Neill, Hamish Inglis, Tony O'Reilly, Rex Willis, Tom Elliot, Jim Greenwood, Clem Thomas and French star Jean 'Monsieur Rugby' Prat. The Academicals won 24-12.
Centenary Match – 6th Oct 1957 - Academicals vs. International XV
RI Marshall standing back row fifth from the left.
Robin' s father, RI Marshall Snr, had captained the Club in the 1921-22 season, thereby making the one and only remarkable feat of a father and two sons captaining the Club in its long history.
When Robin’s company, McLintocks, relocated him to London, he would, like so many before and since, swap the Accies’ hooped shirt for the navy blue of London Scottish. He said: ‘I drove south in my little two-seater together with Hamish Inglis who was returning to London. Sadly, the car, to which I was particularly attached, ended its days a couple of months later deeply embedded in a pedestrian refuge in the middle of the Cromwell Road about halfway to my digs from the Corkscrew Club. Gordon Mackenzie Wylie (Robin’s first captain at London Scottish) was on the phone within days of my arrival in London with news of Sunday lunchtime at the Victoria, and cricket at Chalfont St Giles. Mac Wylie knew the whole club and was a wonderfully welcoming skipper.’
Andrew recalls his father further illuminating that first journey south: ‘He drove south with Hamish in his beloved gold soft top MG. They left work at 6pm, as Hamish recounts, they found a hay barn on route, where they managed to get a few hours’ sleep and arrived in time for work the next morning.’
Robin went on to have an outstanding career with London Scottish, captaining them (unusually) for two seasons in a row, 1961-62 and 1962-63. At the same time, Robin also became a stalwart of perhaps the finest Sevens side the short form of the game had seen since its invention at Melrose in 1883. In a six-season spell, London Scottish would win England’s premier tournament, the Middlesex, five times (and be runner-up in the sixth), twice do the Middlesex-Melrose double, and finish runners-up on a third visit to The Greenyards. Robin was the only forward to play all the first four Middlesex victories and the first at Melrose.
Robin was a member of The Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers for 40 years and his beloved Luffness New Golf Club in East Lothian for almost 60 years. After moving south, he needed somewhere to play nearer his new English home so he and his teammates including ten Bos, Shackleton, Inglis, MacDonald and Lamb looked for a club west of London that they could get to by train. Denham Golf Club uniquely has a dedicated station, one stop out from Marylebone, and so got the vote. Robin would go on to be a member at Denham for 59 years, captaining it in 1976.
Robin may have just missed out on international honours in an era when so many of his close friends were capped, but he was both an inspirational leader on the pitch, whether at Raeburn Place or The Richmond Athletic Ground, and a great leader and character off it. He was inducted into London Scottish Football Club’s Hall of Fame in 2019 when already suffering from the cancer that would finally take him from us.
Robin passed away at his home beside the 11th green of his beloved Denham Golf Club. He was a wonderful man and will be sadly missed by all who knew him, and the Club would like to extend its sincere condolences to his family and many friends.
Robin (in the foreground left with white laces) and his brother, David (to the right of Robin wearing scrum cap), coming to the aid of their brother, John (with ball) at a lineout.