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acting sub post mistress of the Post Office in Maybole and was waiting for the Post Of-
fice to decide if she should be made permanent sub post mistress, so his daughter was
in gainful employment at this time. Despite the unsubtle threat made in the letter from
David Brown asking a member of parliament to take up John Marshall's case, the NLB
appear to have been unperturbed and C. Dick Peddie responded to David Brown in a
letter on 14 June 1901 stating:
Dear Sir,
I am directed to inform you that the Commissioners, after careful consideration, regret
that they cannot accede to your claim on behalf of Mr John Marshall. Your statement
- in answer to a request for detailed information - that Mr Marshall is without means
and that his son was in the habit of remitting him considerable sums for his support, is
of too general a nature to be of much weight. It is, further, apparently inconsistent with
information supplied to the Commissioners shortly after the accident by Mr Marshall
senior himself, to the effect that at the time of his son's death he was still pursuing his
callingasMasterofacoastingvessel,andthatanypecuniaryassistanceaffordedbyhis
son to members of the family had consisted of occasional gifts of money to his sister.
InviewofthesestatementsandofMrMarshall'sdeclaredintentionoflivingwithhis
daughter, the Commissioners divided between them the proceeds of a policy of insur-
ance for £140 on the son's life; had Mr Marshall been considered entitled to a gratuity
or annuity a different disposition of the money would have been made.
I may add that the Commissioners understand that Mr Marshall also derives consid-
erable benefit from the proceeds of another policy of insurance taken out by his son.
The case is not provided for in the Superannuation Acts and relative Treasury War-
rants by which the Commissioners' action in such matters is regulated, and the Com-
missioners, while sympathising with Mr Marshall in his bereavement, regret that the
circumstances so far as disclosed to them do not warrant them in recommending that
an action be made in respect of his claim.
Yours Faithfully
(Sgd) C. Dick Peddie
Secretary
14
That then appears to have been the end of the matter as far as the NLB was concerned
and presumably it was an end of the matter for John Marshall and his agent David
Brown, as no further correspondence appears to have been forthcoming. Whilst it ap-
pearsonthefaceofitthatJohnMarshallhadperhapsoverstatedhiscaseandtherewere
impliedthreatsof'goingpublic'thoughamemberofparliament,onecannotblamehim
