In the short story The Case of the Missing Will, Roger Marsh was the father of Violet Marsh. Roger was the younger of two brothers, sons of a small yeoman farmer in Devonshire. As he had no leanings towards agriculture, he educated himself and obtained a post as a clerk with a small firm. Subsequently he married "slightly above" himself (according to Violet), marrying the daughter of a poor artist. Roger died when Violet was six and her mother when she was fourteen, leaving her an orphan.