John Birnie Marshall (29 March 1930 – 31 January 1957) was an Australian competitive swimmer of the 1940s and 1950s who won a silver medal in the 1500-metre and a bronze medal in the 400-metre freestyle at the 1948 Summer Olympics. By the age of 21, he had set 28 world and 38 American records (see note below). Biography Marshall was born in Bondi, New South Wales, the elder son of Alexander St Andrew McLean Marshall, a window dresser and former surfing champion from Western Australia. He soon moved to Perth, where he started swimming in the Swan River by the age of three, and in 1935 to Melbourne. As a teenager he took up cricket, association football and athletics and only later shifted to swimming. In 1947 he won every event from the 220-yard to the 1650-yard freestyle at the 1947 Australian championships. The following year, he was selected for the London Olympics, where he claimed bronze in the men's 400-metre freestyle behind the American duo of Bill Smith and Jimmy McLane. He claimed a silver medal in the men's 1500 metre freestyle, behind McLane. In Marshall's era, the 200-metre freestyle was not part of the Olympic swimming program. McLane's coach, Bob Kiphuth was so impressed by Marshall's performance that the same year he arranged for Marshall to study at Yale University and swim for the Yale Bulldogs swimming and diving team. Under Kiphuth's guidance, Marshall set 19 world records, 15 of them within four months in 1950. At the 1949 Australian championships he won all freestyle events from 100- to 1500-metre, and at the 1950 U.S. Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) Indoor Championships he collected the 220-yard, 440-yard, 880-yard, 200-metre, 400-metre and 1-mile titles. Marshall was burnt out by the 1952 Summer Olympics – he failed to qualify for the final of the 400-metre freestyle, and finished an eighth in the final of the 1500-metre freestyle, more than 41 seconds behind the second-last finisher. In 1954 he returned to Australia, where he worked for the tyre company of the Australian former swimmer Frank Beaurepaire. On 14 September 1955 he married Wendy Patricia Byrne, an 18-year-old competition diver.

From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Notable quotes

“The people made the Constitution, and the people can unmake it. It is the creature of their own will, and lives only by their will.”
— Cohens v. Virginia, 19 U.S. (6 Wheaton) 264, 387 (1821)
“It is the peculiar province of the legislature to prescribe general rules for the government of society; the application of those rules to individuals in society would seem to be the duty of other departments.”
— Fletcher v. Peck, 10 U.S. (6 Cranch) 87, 128 (1810)
“The law does not expect a man to be prepared to defend every act of his life which may be suddenly and without notice alleged against him.”
— In the Trial of Aaron Burr, August 1807
“The acme of judicial distinction means the ability to look a lawyer straight in the eyes for two hours and not hear a damned word he says.”
— Reportedly said to a young John Bannister Gibson, who later became Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, when Gibson remarked that Marshall had reached the acme of judicial distinction; in David Goldsmith Loth, Chief Justice: John Marshall and the Growth of the Republic (1949), p. 275. See also Albert J. Beveridge, "Life of John Marshall" (1919)
“Certainly all those who have framed written constitutions contemplate them as forming the fundamental and paramount law of the nation, and consequently the theory of every such government must be, that an act of the legislature, repugnant to the constitution, is void.”
— 5. U.S. (1 Cranch) 137, at 177
“We must never forget that it is a constitution we are expounding.”
— 17 U.S. (4 Wheaton) 316, 407

Quotes via Wikiquote (CC BY-SA), each with its original source.

Overview

John Birnie Marshall (29 March 1930 – 31 January 1957) was an Australian competitive swimmer of the 1940s and 1950s who won a silver medal in the 1500-metre and a bronze medal in the 400-metre freestyle at the 1948 Summer Olympics. By the age of 21, he had set 28 world and 38 American records (see note below). Biography Marshall was born in Bondi, New South Wales, the elder son of Alexander St Andrew McLean Marshall, a window dresser and former surfing champion from Western Australia. He soon moved to Perth, where he started swimming in the Swan River by the age of three, and in 1935 to Melbourne. As a teenager he took up cricket, association football and athletics and only later shifted to swimming. In 1947 he won every event from the 220-yard to the 1650-yard freestyle at the 1947 Australian championships. The following year, he was selected for the London Olympics, where he claimed bronze in the men's 400-metre freestyle behind the American duo of Bill Smith and Jimmy McLane. He claimed a silver medal in the men's 1500 metre freestyle, behind McLane. In Marshall's era, the 200-metre freestyle was not part of the Olympic swimming program. McLane's coach, Bob Kiphuth was so impressed by Marshall's performance that the same year he arranged for Marshall to study at Yale University and swim for the Yale Bulldogs swimming and diving team. Under Kiphuth's guidance, Marshall set 19 world records, 15 of them within four months in 1950. At the 1949 Australian championships he won all freestyle events from 100- to 1500-metre, and at the 1950 U.S. Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) Indoor Championships he collected the 220-yard, 440-yard, 880-yard, 200-metre, 400-metre and 1-mile titles. Marshall was burnt out by the 1952 Summer Olympics – he failed to qualify for the final of the 400-metre freestyle, and finished an eighth in the final of the 1500-metre freestyle, more than 41 seconds behind the second-last finisher. In 1954 he returned to Australia, where he worked for the tyre company of the Australian former swimmer Frank Beaurepaire. On 14 September 1955 he married Wendy Patricia Byrne, an 18-year-old competition diver.

From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).

John Birnie Marshall (29 March 1930 – 31 January 1957) was an Australian competitive swimmer of the 1940s and 1950s who won a silver medal in the 1500-metre and a bronze medal in the 400-metre freestyle at the 1948 Summer Olympics. By the age of 21, he had set 28 world and 38 American records (see note below).

Not who you're looking for? Others named John Marshall: chief justice of the United States from 1801 to 1835, (1755- · Anglo-Norman nobleman · Bishop of Llandaff (15th-century) · cartoonist, born 1955

Notable quotes

“The people made the Constitution, and the people can unmake it. It is the creature of their own will, and lives only by their will.”
— Cohens v. Virginia, 19 U.S. (6 Wheaton) 264, 387 (1821)
“It is the peculiar province of the legislature to prescribe general rules for the government of society; the application of those rules to individuals in society would seem to be the duty of other departments.”
— Fletcher v. Peck, 10 U.S. (6 Cranch) 87, 128 (1810)
“The law does not expect a man to be prepared to defend every act of his life which may be suddenly and without notice alleged against him.”
— In the Trial of Aaron Burr, August 1807
“The acme of judicial distinction means the ability to look a lawyer straight in the eyes for two hours and not hear a damned word he says.”
— Reportedly said to a young John Bannister Gibson, who later became Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, when Gibson remarked that Marshall had reached the acme of judicial distinction; in David Goldsmith Loth, Chief Justice: John Marshall and the Growth of the Republic (1949), p. 275. See also Albert J. Beveridge, "Life of John Marshall" (1919)
“Certainly all those who have framed written constitutions contemplate them as forming the fundamental and paramount law of the nation, and consequently the theory of every such government must be, that an act of the legislature, repugnant to the constitution, is void.”
— 5. U.S. (1 Cranch) 137, at 177
“We must never forget that it is a constitution we are expounding.”
— 17 U.S. (4 Wheaton) 316, 407

Quotes via Wikiquote (CC BY-SA), each with its original source.

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