David Saul Marshall (né Mashal; 12 March 1908 – 12 December 1995) was a Singaporean lawyer, politician, and diplomat who served as the first chief minister of Singapore from April 1955 to June 1956. He resigned after just over a year into his chief ministership after his delegation to London regarding negotiations for self-governance was rejected by the British.
Born in colonial Singapore to Jewish parents, he studied at Saint Andrew's Secondary School and Raffles Institution. He held down different jobs from 1926 to 1934, eventually saving up enough money to study law at the University of London. He returned to Singapore in 1937 to begin his law practice. In 1938, Marshall began volunteering with the Singapore Volunteer Corps. Following the surrender of Singapore, Marshall became a prisoner-of-war and was interned at Changi Prison before being sent to Japan. He returned to Singapore in 1946 after the Japanese's surrender, where he joined the newly created Progressive Party (PP) the following year. However, disputes with the PP and its leader C. C. Tan led to Marshall leaving in 1953. He then founded the Labour Front (LF) with Lim Yew Hock and Francis Thomas, serving as its first chairman. The LF contested at the 1955 general election, where they won the most seats with 10, and Marshall was named the first chief minister as the LF's leader.
Marshall's chief ministership was marked with strikes and riots, a constitutional crisis, and internal problems with the LF. His main goal was obtaining self-governance, and he led a delegation to London in 1956 to hold constitutional talks with British authorities. However, the talks broke down and he subsequently resigned as chief minister, having promised to do so if he did not achieve self-governance. He remained a backbencher and was succeeded by Lim. Marshall then resigned from the LF and the Legislative Assembly in 1957, and founded the Workers' Party (WP) to contest in the upcoming 1959 general elections. At the 1959 general elections, he lost to Lim, but won Anson at the 1961 by-elections. Marshall would resign from the WP following internal disputes, and later lost his seat at the 1963 general election.
Afterwards, Marshall left politics and returned to law. In 1978, Marshall became a diplomat at the invitation of foreign minister S. Rajaratnam and was Singapore's inaugural ambassador to various countries, including France, Portugal, Spain, and Switzerland. During this time he defended Singapore's interests abroad, despite his old political opponent Lee Kuan Yew of the People's Action Party having long led the government as prime minister. Nevertheless, he publicly maintained constructive criticism of some domestic policies with which he disagreed. Marshall retired in 1993 and died two years later in 1995, at the age of 87.
Marshall was born on Selegie Road in British colonial Singapore as David Saul Mashal on 12 March 1908, the second child of seven to Baghdadi Jewish parents Saul Nassim and Flora Ezekiel Mashal (née Guston). His father, Saul, arrived in Singapore in 1900 from Baghdad and established a business at Change Alley. Saul was a Sephardic Jew of Spanish descent from Ottoman Iraq. His business was financially successful, and he later brought his wife Flora over to Singapore. In 1920, his family name, originally Mashal, was anglicised to Marshall on the advice of a family doctor.
Marshall spent his early years moving frequently, depending on his father's fluctuating wealth. His parents were ultra-orthodox Jews and Marshall was given a strict Jewish upbringing, going to the synagogue and observing the Sabbath; he had his bar mitzvah when he was thirteen. Upon his return to Singapore from Baghdad, Marshall attended kindergarten at the Convent of the Holy Infant Jesus at Victoria Street, where he faced anti-semitism. After kindergarten, he began studying at Saint Joseph's Institution in 1918, but was expelled a year later for skipping class.
He then enrolled at Saint Andrew's Secondary School, studying until Standard VII, before transferring to Raffles Institution in 1923 for their science facilities. Marshall initially planned to obtain a Queen's Scholarship for a medical degree, and he studied for fourteen hours a day over six months in 1925. However, before his examinations, Marshall fainted and was unable to take them. He was subsequently sent to Switzerland to recover from his illness, during which he spent his time taking French classes. Upon his return to Singapore, Marshall began working at a stockbroker's firm in 1926, but fell sick with tuberculosis and returned to Switzerland again. He recovered eight months later, travelling to Renaix, Belgium, to study textile manufacturing.
Marshall travelled overseas again before returning to Singapore in 1930, during the Great Depression. He had unsuccessfully held down a job as a textile representative before working as a salesman. He began holding French classes at the YMCA for some extra money as he was saving up to pursue an overseas education. Upon reaching his monetary goals, he decided to study law in London, attending the University of London in September 1934. To get his law degree and join the Bar at the same time, Marshall registered himself with Middle Temple and took his Bachelor of Laws at the University of London externally.
Eighteen months after his arrival, Marshall passed the Bar's finals with honours. Marshall planned to immediately return to Singapore to begin working, but had to participate in eighteen month's worth of dinners (now known as qualifying sessions) with Middle Temple before he could be admitted with them; he was given an exemption of six months after conferring with Middle Temple's under treasurer. Marshall returned to Singapore in 1937.
Upon his return, he was called to the bar in February the following year. He joined law firm Rodyk & Davidson with a monthly salary of S$500.00. However, he discovered that Rodyk & Davison's chief clerk was paid S$400.00 more than him, and he considered it prejudice for being a local. Marshall subsequently applied to join Aitken & Ong Siang, a law firm co-founded by Sir Song Ong Siang, a prominent member of the Chinese community. With the help of his father, Marshall was eventually accepted by Song to join in a special arrangement; he would be paid no salary and had to pay for his own desk space, office supplies, and secretarial services. Despite this, in his first month, Marshall made S$700.00. To establish himself in the community, he began taking cases at a low cost of S$75.00, eventually charging up to S$300.00 per case as his reputation grew.
In October 1938, concluding that the Japanese would soon attack Southeast Asia, Marshall decided to volunteer with the Singapore Volunteer Corps (SVC), which was a branch of the larger Straits Settlements Volunteer Force (SSVF). Within the SVC, Marshall was assigned to the "D" Company, which consisted largely of Eurasians. He objected to this assignment as he was being grouped with Eurasians despite being a Jew and he raised the matter to the commanding officer. Marshall was subsequently transferred to the "B" Company, a European unit that included Czechs, Yugoslavs, and Poles. With "B" Company, Marshall discovered that he was paid a daily salary of S$0.50, which corresponded to the "Asian" salary, as compared to his fellow European colleagues who earned the "European" salary of S$1.04 daily. After complaining to the commandant about this disparity, he was confined to his barracks, but found his pay increased by S$0.55 more.
During his training with the SVC, Marshall found their schedule to have interfered heavily with his law career and he was unable to continue his business with Aitken & Ong Siang. He applied to join Allen & Gledhill as an assistant as their schedule was more convenient for him, and he was hired with a monthly salary of S$750.00, the highest at the time for a non-European. He trained weekly with "B" Company at Beach Road. Following the possibility of the war affecting Singapore, by 1941 Marshall had sent his family to Perth to avoid it, with only his mother staying with him in Singapore.