The'neurotic captain'

Norval Marley's war record casts a brief light on his story.

Giving his place of birth as East Sussex, he enlisted in Liverpool on 12 August 1916, after arriving from Cuba, via the US.

At 1.65m tall and weighing 56kg, Norval gave his occupation as a construction engineer.

He was declared fit and, like many others, he soon found himself at one of the war's biggest training camps, at Park Hall, near Oswestry, in Shropshire.

Home to more than 20,000 men, most were trained in trench warfare at the site, ready for the frontline. Norval Marley, however, was not to be among them, local historian Keith Pybus said.

In September 1916 he reported sick at Park Hall as a result of a strain during training with the 10th Liverpool Scottish.

Pybus said the medical report described him as a "neurotic type of man" who claimed "incontinence of urine" and told doctors he wet the bed at night.

A month later he was sent to the military hospital in Oswestry, where he underwent an operation, despite the fact no problem was found.

He was soon transferred to a support battalion, which eventually became the Labour Corps, and would never see frontline action, rather spending the war in the UK.

Pybus said: "[Those battalions are] called salvage companies, but sewage might be closer to the truth. It's laundry, it's sanitation.

"If you're unfortunate enough in the army to be wetting the bed, that does not especially make you look as if you're of heroic status."

Records show Mr Marley later received a pension because of "ill health caused by army service" for "incontinence of urine and non attributed rheumatism".

Later rumours that he had been a captain in the Royal Marines were "romanticised", Pybus said, although it was unclear whether Mr Marley himself was responsible for them.

It is said that after the war his namesake worked in Lagos, Nigeria, either in the Military Police or the local army, while the country was a British colony, and he acquired the title of captain while stationed there.

Ms Anderson said many of the stories about Mr Marley came from Bob's mother Cedella and seem to have had little or no truth about them.

Park Hall itself was to follow its one-time resident, Norval Marley, into obscurity.

The old hall that gave the site its name was burned down on Boxing Day 1918.

After the war other buildings fell into disrepair, though WWII would see troops return for training, with it also serving as a prisoner of war camp.

After 1945, it remained in use by the military until it closed in 1975 though would see neither the troop numbers nor importance that it held during WWI.

Today, much of it is used as farmland, although parts of the original site feature a visitor attraction, while other fields make up a showground.

SOURCE: BBC