Name
Charles Rowley Parker
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
10/07/1915
26
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Corporal
Deal/238(S)
Royal Marines
R.M. Div. Engineers, Royal Naval Division.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Not Yet Researched
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
CHATHAM NAVAL MEMORIAL
13.
United Kingdom
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Not on the Bushey memorials
Pre War
Born in Harrow Weald on 10 August 1888, Charles Rowley Parker was the fourth son of Frank Rowley and Catharine (nee Jevons) Parker of ‘The Garth’, Stanmore in Middlesex and later of Franshams in Bushey Heath. His parents were married in 1876 in the registration district of West Derby.
At the 1891 Census, Charles was 2 years old and living with his parents and four siblings, Caroline, Helen, Wilfred and Mary at Harrow in Middlesex. Their ages are given as 48 and 36 for Frank and Catharine, and 11, 10, 7 and 4 years for Charles’ siblings. His father is a solicitor and an employer. The birthplaces are given as Birmingham for Frank, Liverpool for Catharine, South Hampstead for Caroline, Helen and Wilfred and Harrow Weald for Mary and Charles. Also present was a boarder, John Jekns, a law stationers’ clerk, and four servants: a nurse, a parlourmaid, a cook and an under-nurse. Charles father died in 1901.
Charles completed his education at London University, where he gained a B Sc in Engineering. He then joined the engineering staff of the Rio de Janeiro Improvement Company and became a District Engineer. He was proposed as an Associate Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers on 29 January 1914 and the proposal was accepted at a meeting on 17 February 1914.
Charles relinquished his appointment as District Engineer to return home in October 1914 and there is an entry for him on the ‘Incoming Passenger Lists’ for the ‘Andes’, a ship of the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company, which departed from Buenos Aires and arrived at Liverpool on 19 September 1914 having called on route at Montevideo, Santos, Rio de Janerio, Bahia, Pernambuco, Lisbon and Vigo.
Wartime Service
The Royal Naval Division Casualties of the Great War record states that Charles enlisted on 25 September 1914 with the Royal Marines with a service number of Deal/238. He served in the 1st Field Company of the Divisional Engineers, Royal Naval Division of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force from 1 March 1915 and was promoted to Acting Corporal (Sapper) on 4 June 1916.
Whilst in action at the Dardanelles, he received a gunshot wound to the right shoulder on 5 July 1915 and died of wounds, aged 26, aboard the hospital ship ‘Dongola’ on 10 July 1915. He was buried at sea and is commemorated on the Chatham Naval Memorial. He previously served as Private 82 in ‘M’ Company of the Artists Rifles before being discharged in 1910.
The National Archives at Kew holds records [Ref: ADM / 159 / 119 / 238] for Charles, but these have not been accessed in preparing this profile.
There is an entry for Charles in the National Probate Calendar for 1915, which reads: "PARKER Charles Rowley of Garth Stanmore Middlesex died 10 July 1915 on His Majesty’s hospital ship Dongola near Dardanelles Probate London 4 December to Catherine Parker widow. Effects £919 8s. 9d."
His elder brother, 2nd Lieutenant Wilfred Horsley Parker of the Royal Munster Fusiliers, died on 9 May 1915 at the age of 33. Their mother subsequently moved to ‘Franshams’, Bushey Heath.
Additional Information
Dianne Payne - www.busheyworldwarone.org.uk, Jonty Wild
Acknowledgments
Andrew Palmer
Dianne Payne - www.busheyworldwarone.org.uk, Jonty Wild
