Background
Marsden was the son of Reginald Edward Marsden and his wife Vere Mary (née Dillon). He was born at Dehra Dun in India, where his father, who later joined the Eton mathematics staff, was then a Forest Officer.
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John Marsden
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Eton College.
Career
On leaving Eton he wanted to return to teach modern languages, but was turned down because he did not have a degree. He spent four years studying for a doctorate from the University of Bonn and returned with fluency in German and French as well as good Italian, Spanish and Norwegian. He was successful at his second interview at Eton in 1938.
Marsden was an officer in the school Corps and so had a Territorial commission.
In World World War II, he joined the Army early in 1940. As an expert linguist, he was assigned to Intelligence, taking part in the Lofoten Islands raid, being parachuted into Africa, and working behind enemy lines in Italy.
As this unit had its own aircraft, Marsden qualified as a pilot. He was mentioned in dispatches and awarded the Croix de Guerre with Palms by General de Gaulle, and the American Bronze Star.
After the war, he returned to teach at Eton and in 1954 took over as Master in House from Harry Babington Smith.
He joined Vesta Rowing Club and drove regularly to Putney to train for the Wingfield Sculls. Marsden retired early from his house at Eton, becoming first a stockbroker and then a farmer. However he returned to teaching as Director of Studies at a London tutorial college where continued until he was well into his seventies.
Marsden married Suzanne M Boyd (née Cooke), the widow of Arthur North A Boyd, an Eton cricketer who was killed in action in 1940.
Achievements
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He won the Wingfield Sculls, officially the Amateur Sculling Championship of England, in 1956. Marsden was educated at Street Cyprian"s School, Eastbourne and Eton where he won the pulling and the sculling events as well as the mile, the half-mile and the steeplechase. He had covered 3,000 miles on the water before his first attempt at the title and won it at his fifth attempt in 1956, aged 41. He had beaten Fox, twice winner of the Diamond Sculls, in the first tideway Scullers Head earlier that year.
Connections
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Born
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Died
February 21, 2004 (aged 88) -
Nationality
United Kingdom