James was the third of four sons born to George Marsh and his wife Barbara, née Manchester. Both parents were Lancashire-born; Barbara moved from her Liverpool birthplace and settled in St Helen's where her husband George and his siblings had all been born. In 1871 the family was living at 30 Peasley Cross, St Helens, with father George still working as a glass polisher, as he had been for the last 20 years.
By 1881 family circumstances had changed. Oldest son Josiah married in 1874 and moved out to live next door to his wife's family in Bolton; father George died in 1876 at the early age of 48 and his widow Barbara had moved to 30 Sutton Road, St Helens, where she was living on an annuity with her other three sons. (Sadly she was to spend her last years in the workhouse, having become "weak minded". She died in 1908.) James and two brothers had all followed their father into the local glass industry. James at 17 was a glass packer and by 1883 had been promoted to glass cutter.
In 1883 James decided on a change of career. On 31st October 1883, aged 19 years and 7 months, he travelled to Winchester and enlisted in the Kings Royal Rifle Corps. He is recorded as being 5' 5¼" tall, with a fresh complexion, hazel eyes and dark brown hair. He also sported a tattooed dot on his left hand.
As a soldier, James was often on the move. He was stationed in Dublin's Richmond barracks in 1891 when he married Ellen Insley at St Paul's Church on 27th November; he was 28 and she was 22. Ellen was born in Castletown in the Isle of Man, as was her older brother Edward. Their father (also Edward) came from Oughterard, Co. Galway, Ireland but it is likely that he, too, was a soldier, as Ellen is to be found was working in Aldershot barracks as a schoolmistress earlier that same year.
Ellen (known as Nellie) clearly travelled with James when he was posted abroad with the 2nd Bn Kings Royal Rifles. Oldest son George and daughter Ethel were both born in Gibraltar; young James Edward arrived in 1896 in Floriana, Malta. By 1898 they were in South Africa, about to be heavily involved in the Second Boer War. (James's battalion took part in the Relief of Ladysmith and the Battle of Talana.) On 26th June 1898 Ellen gave birth to son Alec in the garrison town of Wynberg, Western Cape (now a suburb of Cape Town).
Having reached the rank of Colour Sergeant, James Marsh was discharged from the army at Gosport, Hampshire on 20th August 1901, the reason given was blunt: “invalid”. There are no details, but twice as many soldiers died from disease during this conflict as were killed in fighting, so he may well have been seriously debilitated by a disease such as typhoid.
He was only 35 years old and gave an address in Southsea as his intended place of residence. His character was “exemplary”. The family settled however on Alderney in the Channel Islands, where their last child, daughter Barbara, was born in 1902. They were living at an address in Little St, Alderney when James died on 30th March 1903.
Nellie Marsh married her husband's best friend and fellow soldier,Tom Maple, who had also been widowed. By 1911, they had been married for two years and still lived in Little St, Alderney. With them were Nellie's daughters Ethel and Barbara.