Name
Cecil Harry Parker
1889
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
23/07/1916
25
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
265699
Hertfordshire Regiment
1st Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
CATERPILLAR VALLEY CEMETERY, LONGUEVAL
V. K .21
France
Headstone Inscription
None
UK & Other Memorials
Hertfordshire Regimental Memorial All Saints Church Hertford, Hoddesdon and Rye Park Town Memorial Hoddesdon, St Catherine and St Paul’s Church Memorial, Hoddesdon, Tewin Village Memorial, St Peter’s Church Muster Roll, Tewin, Broxbourne C of E Primary School Memorial, Not on the Broxbourne memorials
Pre War
Cecil Henry PARKER was born in Broxbourne, Hertfordshire, in 1889 to John Campion Parker a Domestic Gardener and Sarah Parker (nee Jones). One of seven children.
1891 Census records Cecil aged 1, living with his parents, brother Arthur (5), and sister Ay (3), at Gardeners Lodge, Broxbournebury Mansion, Park Lane, Broxbourne, Herts. His mother Sarah Parker, died in 1896, aged 42.
1901 Census records Cecil aged 11, living with his widowed father, sister Amy (13), and brother Frank (9), still at the Gardeners Lodge, Broxbournebury Mansion. They have a liv-in housekeeper widow Rosa Jones.
1911 Census Cecil (21) was working as an Under Gardener and living at Orchid Bothy, Westonbirt, Tetbury, Gloucestershire. He was living with six other Under Gardeners. His father John, sister Amy and brother Frank are now living at The Gardens, High Leigh, Hoddesdon, Herts, his father and brother are both Gardeners.
Wartime Service
At the time of his enlistment, he was living at Hoddesdon. He travelled to the County Town of Hertford to enlist, posted to the Hertfordshire Regiment initially with the service number 2847, later when service numbers were standardised 265699. On completion of his training Cecil was sent to France, seeing action on the Western Front, he was killed in action on the 23rd July 1916, when nearing the end of 16 days in the trenches near Festubert. He is buried in Caterpillar Valley Cemetery, Longaeval, France. Grave Ref: V. K. 21.
Additional Information
His Pension card shows no Pension was issued to his father who was recorded as living at The Gardens, Woodcock Lodge, Little Berkhamsted, Herts. It records his brother Private 29471 Frank Campion of the East Surrey Regiment, was Killed in Action on 22nd October 1918. No CWGC records or military documents were found to confirm this.
Cecil’s effects of £2-06s-00d, pay owing and his war gratuity of £8-10s-00d, went to his father John Campion Parker.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer, Stuart Osborne
Malcolm Lennox,
