One of the younger Conscientious Objectors of the First World War, Alfred Marshall turned eighteen on 6th July 1916, making him eligible for conscription under the Military Services Act introduced earlier that year. His first Tribunal hearing was in Hackney in September 1916, where he argued that we would “be doing a great wrong if I should take life under any pretence”. He made his views on alternative service very clear to the Tribunal - “should I serve in the non-combatant corps I should directly aid the execution of war, and thus would be quite as guilty as the fighters”.

Early on in his stand against war, his views were based on Christian beliefs, although his concept of faith and christianity would change significantly during the war.

His Son, Roger Marshall, writes:
He appeared at the Tribunal on 29th September. This lasted 10 minutes and he was disgusted by its brevity, superficiality and by the cheap sophistry of the Military Representative. He wrote down his memory of this the next day and typed it up a month later along with a note on the procedure. His application to join the Friends Ambulance Unit (FAU) was refused on the grounds that there was not sufficient evidence that it would accept him, but perhaps it was just an excuse to test his resolve.
He appealed against this decision and had advice and an interview with J.R. Little of FAU, although he was not a Quaker. On 2rd November he was notified that he had exemption from military service so long as he joined the FAU within two weeks. There is no indication that he had to appear at another hearing. He subsequently joined the FAU on 16th December 1916 and served in France from 10.8.17 until discharge in February 1919. My memories of the few descriptions he gave of his work were that he was a stretcher bearer and ambulance driver.
He had a very worn map of Flanders indicating the main routes he had travelled up to September 1918, which were largely between Dunkirk and Ypres. I walked some of these roads and old battlefields between Bruges and Ypres with him in 1954 when he was 56 and I was 14, and he recognised some of these despite the vast change in circumstances.

On returning from France in 1919 he taught at school level for a few years, then entered technical education and for his final twelve years was the principal of Thanet Technical College. He talked very little about his experiences and when I was young in the nineteen forties he never defined what he had done during the Great War. Only later when I was a teenager did I discover his stand and he then admitted he was afraid I might be ashamed of him when I was younger and the times were probably more jingoistic.

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