Walter Marshall, Baron Marshall of Goring

Walter Charles Marshall, Baron Marshall of Goring (5 March 1932 – 20 February 1996) was a noted theoretical physicist and leader in the UK's energy sector.

Early life

The son of Frank Marshall and Amy Pearson, he attended the grammar school St Illtyd's Boys College (now St Illtyd's Catholic High School).

He studied mathematical physics at Birmingham University and gained a PhD there

In 1989, with the government's plan to reorganise and privatise electricity generation, the position of Chairman of the CEGB disappeared. He was made Chairman of National Power which included a large number of the coal- and oil-fired power stations and all of the nuclear power stations. National Power was a division of the CEGB until it was privatised in 1990. This was done as he had a close association with nuclear power, from the early years. But before the privatisation process was complete, the city was not happy with the nuclear component in National Power, and it was removed from the process and placed into another state-owned company (only to be part privatised some 5 years later). It was as a result of this political decision that he resigned his post as Chairman of National Power. Marshall then entered into several jobs in the private sector connected with the nuclear industry and died in 1996.

As a scientist, Marshall was recognised as one of the leading theoreticians in the atomic properties of matter and characterised by his penetrating analytical powers. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1971.

Personal life In 1955 he married Ann Sheppard in Cardiff and had a son and daughter. he was Knighted in 1982.

For his success in keeping the country's “lights on” during the protracted miners’ strike of 1984–5, Margaret Thatcher rewarded him with a life peerage and he became Baron Marshall of Goring, of South Stoke in the County of Oxfordshire on 22 July 1985.