Marshall, who opposed the introduction of so-called "broken-time payments", made by clubs in northern England to compensate working men for wages lost while playing matches, has been described as the "witch-finder general, rooting out incipient professionalism".

The planning application was rejected by Kirklees Council for whom an officer said "Whether his actions were driven by prejudice towards working class people or by his adherence to the purity of amateurism in Rugby Union is debatable, but his words and actions would be out of place in contemporary society without contextual explanation.

"[4] Born in West Bromwich, Marshall attended Brewood Grammar School before studying at St John's College, Cambridge.

He burnished his reputation as “the man with bell, book and candle facing the evil spirit of professionalism”[5] by banning his own club, Huddersfield, in 1893 for breaching the amateur code.

[6] Marshall, the author of Football: The Rugby Union Game, first published in 1892, features as a central character in Broken Time,[7] a play by Mick Martin that had its premiere at the Theatre Royal, Wakefield in 2011.