By his marriage to Elizabeth Shipley, the son of James William Marsh, he was the eldest son in a family of eight children. Educated at Cambridge in 1907, Marsh was elected a Tyrwhitt Scholar, and much of his subsequent work was in the field of Syriac studies.[1]
From 1916 to 1919, during the First World War, Marsh served as a chaplain in the armed forces and was gassed, causing harm which continued to trouble him for the rest of his life.[2]
A Fellow of Selwyn College from 1920,[3] Marsh was also a Lecturer from 1920 to 1935, College Dean from 1920 to 1924, and College Librarian from 1920 to 1929.[4] In 1927, he published The Book of the Holy Hierotheos, a translation and critical edition of a set of Syriac manuscripts dating from the 6th century which had been discovered in the 19th century.[2] In 1935 he was appointed to succeed James Bethune-Baker as Lady Margaret's Professor of Divinity and moved away from the Syriac field.[1] Founded by Lady Margaret Beaufort in 1502 as a readership, it is the oldest chair at Cambridge, traditionally held by a New Testament scholar.
He retired from his chair in Divinity in 1951, and his successor, C. F. D. Moule, was appointed with effect from 1 October 1951.[6]
Notes
^ abJ. F. Coakley, "The teaching of Syriac at Cambridge", in Eugene E. Lemcio, ed., A Man of Many Parts: Essays in Honor of John Westerdale (2015), p. 24
^ abGraham Stanton, introduction to Patrick Collinson, Richard Rex, Graham Stanton, eds., Lady Margaret Beaufort and Her Professors of Divinity at Cambridge: 1502 to 1649, p. 16
^The Cambridge University Calendar for the Year 1950-51, p. 27
^Europa - the European Who's Who, vol. 2, part 1, 550
^Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. 1 (1952), p. xxxv: "F. S. M. — Fred Shipley Marsh. Lady Margaret's Professor of Divinity, Cambridge University."
