Marshall grew up in wealth and ease in the rural suburb of Flushing, Queens, Long Island, NY. His father was a tailor in NYC and was a president of the Merchant Tailors Association of NYC. When Marshall grew up he worked as a salesman for the Standard Oil Company where he traveled extensively. While in Shanghai, China on the 27th of May 1921, he married a woman named Marjorie Knott who was born in London, England.
I do not know why the couple went to the Philippines, I am assuming that it was related to his work with Standard Oil but I do know that the couple had three children together. Their names were William Coleman, Barbara Coleman and Patricia Coleman. All three were mentioned in their grandfather's will of 1932. The family was still in the Philippines when WWII began and when the Japanese invaded the Island (invasion Dec 8, 1941-8 May 1942). Wife Marjorie and three children were sent to an American internment camp at Santo Tomas remaining there until the Island was liberated. The son William Knott Coleman, died in the sinking of the Arisan Maru a "Hell Ship" being torpedoed on 24 October 1944. The remainder of the family were liberated by Marines and returned to the United States aboard the S.S. Japara leaving Tacloban, Leyte, on 18 Apr 1945, arriving in San Francisco, California, on 9 May 1945. Marjorie and her two daughters made their home in California. Patricia married a Charles Preston Knapp, Jr and had three known children. WWII ended on Sept 2nd 1945 and Marshall returned to the Philippines sometime after that. While there he contracted pneumonia and died in one of the hospitals there. Why he returned I do not know, maybe the long ordeal of the war took it's toll on his body. He died knowing his family was safe to live their lives in peace. (updated 5/2022) (Some of this information provided by Cliff Mills Philippine Internment webmaster and member of FAG. Other information provided by family member Alan Kane via 2016 email. The rest was from research done by Joan M. Wood).