Born on 28 March 1891, the son of Daniel Marston and Annie Bell, he was educated privately and entered Guy's Hospital in January 1909 as a dental student and the following year as a medical student also. Qualifying in 1915 he held a house appointment at Guy's and then entered the Royal Navy as a temporary surgeon. He had originally intended to become a surgeon and had passed the Primary examination in 1913 but, stimulated by Sir Alfred Fripp, he took up anaesthesia and in 1919 was appointed to the staff of Guy's as a consultant anaesthetist, and as a teacher of anaesthesia he was known to generations of Guy's men over a period of thirty-seven years. In 1934 he was appointed to the staff of the Royal Masonic Hospital. Although always remaining a clinical anaesthetist, his greatest interest and achievement was the raising of the status of anaesthesia, and in 1948 he became the first Director of the Department of Anaesthetics at Guy's and, at the College, the first Dean of the Faculty. He had been previously in 1941 President of the Section of Anaesthetics of the Royal Society of Medicine and in 1944 President of the Association of Anaesthetists. He was awarded the Hickman medal by the Faculty in 1957 and the John Snow medal by the Association in 1958. While Dean of the Faculty he delivered the first Clover Lecture on 16 March 1949 on "The Life and achievements of Thomas Clover". He examined first for the Diploma of Anaesthetics and later for the Fellowship of the Faculty, and he acted as consultant in anaesthesia for the Ministry of Health. He retired from the staff of Guy's in 1956, his relaxation being gardening and billiards, and he was a member of the Bath, National Sporting, and Surrey County Cricket Clubs. In 1923 he married Emily Phyllis Irene, daughter of Henry Cox, who died in 1961 without issue. He died at Brighton on 14 January 1962, and a memorial service was held in Guy's Chapel on 6 February 1962.