Name
Charles Albert Parr
1893
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
03/08/1917
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Lance Corporal
G/12070
Duke of Cambridge’s Own (Middlesex Regiment)
4th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
HARLEBEKE NEW BRITISH CEMETERY
XIV. D. 16.
Belgium
Headstone Inscription
None
UK & Other Memorials
Hemel Hempstead Town Memorial, St Mary's Church Memorial, Hemel Hempstead
Pre War
Charles Albert Parr was born in Hemel Hempstead in early 1893, the son of Walter and Mary Ann Parr and one of five children. Charles also had two half brothers from his father's first marriage.
His father died in 1898, leaving his mother with five young children and on the 1901 Census the family were living at 10 Bury Road, Hemel Hempstead and his widowed mother was working as a Charwoman, looking after her five children and stepson Walter.
In 1906 Charles left school and started work as a brush maker with G B Kent & Sons Ltd in Apsley. He was still working there on the 1911 Census, at which time the family were living at 10 Bury Road, Hemel Hempstead. His mother was then working as a Cook and his brother Ernest was working at the brush factory with Charles.
By the time of his enlistment in 1915 he had moved to Stanmore, Middlesex and was working as a Gardener and living at 3 Chart Cottages, Green Lane.
Wartime Service
Charles enlisted at Watford on 17 November 1915, under the Derby Scheme (by which service could be deferred) and was assigned to the Army Reserve. He was called up on 22 January 1916 and joined the 11th Battalion, Duke of Cambridge's Own (Middlesex) Regiment, being sent to Chatham for basic training. He went to France on 19 May 1916, then being posted to the 4th Battalion, Middlesex Regiment.
He saw his first major action at the Battle of Albert during the opening days of the Somme Offensive in July 1916, when the Battalion suffered heavy casualties. He was in action later in the year at the Battle of Ancre in November.
Charles was promoted to unpaid Lance Corporal on 16 October 1916, a position which was confirmed as paid on 16 April 1917, but received a leg injury in January 1917 which was serious enough for him to be evacuated back to England on 4 January 1917. He spent 36 days in Hayton House Hospital in Carlisle, receiving treatment and recovering, and left hospital on 9 February to return home to Hemel Hempstead. He eventually returned to France on 30 March and re-joined his unit near three weeks later.
He was soon in action again at the Arras Offensive in May and by July the Battalion were north of Ypres in preparation for an attack at Pilckem Ridge, later known as the Third Battle of Ypres or Passchendaele. Charles was one of those recorded as missing on 31 July 1917 and in September the Geneva Red Cross wrote to his mother confirming that he had died from wounds in hospital as a Prisoner of War. It was later reported that he had suffered from grenade splinters in his thigh at Wevelgem in Belgium.
Charles died on 3 August 1917, aged 24, and is buried in Harlebeke New British Cemetery, Belgium, having been initially buried in Ram Wood German Military Cemetery and exhumed and reburied at the end of the war.
Additional Information
Brother to Ernest Parr who served with the 4th Northamptonshire Regiment, was a POW in Suez, Egypt, but survived the war. Half brother to Walter Parr who served with the South Wales Borderers and who died 26/9/1915 and is named on the Loos Memorial. His sister Mary received the war gratuity of £6 10s and his mother received pay owing of £5 1s 6d. His mother also received a pension of 5 shillings a week.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Jonty Wild, www.hemelheroes.com. www.hemelatwar.org.
