yeovil at War
Henry parsons
Drowned alongside Lord Kitchener
Henry Parsons, known as Harry or Harrie, was born in 1897 in Yeovil, the son of coal carter John James Read Parsons (1859-1927) and Melena Ann née White, known as Annie, (b 1867). They were to have seven children; John (b 1885), Charlotte Ann (b 1888), Charlie (b 1894), Henry (b 1897), William James (b 1900), Violet Kate (b 1904) and Melena (b 1907).
In the 1901 census John and Melena were listed living at 2 Charlotte Place, Sherborne Road, with children John, Charlotte, Charlie, Henry and William as well as two lodgers. They were still at the same address in 1911 at which time 14-year old Harry was working as a bricklayer's labourer.
It
is not known
when Harry
enlisted, but he
was probably
under age since
he gave his
birth date as 20
November 1895,
making him a
year or two
older than he
actually was. He
became an
Officer's
Steward 3rd
Class and after training
he served on
board HMS
Hampshire.
HMS Hampshire was one of six Devonshire-class armoured cruisers built for the
Royal Navy in
the first decade
of the 20th
century. She was
assigned to the
China Station in
1912 and
remained there
until the start
of World War I
in August 1914.
The Battle of Jutland was a naval battle fought by the Royal Navy's Grand Fleet against the Imperial German Navy's High Seas Fleet. The battle was fought on 31 May and 1 June 1916 in the North Sea near Jutland, Denmark. It was the largest naval battle and the only full-scale clash of battleships in the war. Fourteen British and eleven German ships were sunk with 6,094 killed and 674 wounded on the Allied side and 2,551 Germans killed and 507 wounded.
Several days later HMS Hampshire was sailing to Russia, carrying the Secretary of State
for War, Field
Marshal Lord
Kitchener, when
she is believed
to have struck a
mine laid by a
German
submarine. She
sank with heavy
loss of life,
including
Harry Parsons,
Lord
Kitchener and
his staff.
On 23 June 1916 the Western Gazette reported "Harry Parsons, officer’s cook, third son of Mr and Mrs Parsons, Queen Street, Yeovil, lost on HMS Hampshire, aged 19 years."
Harry Parsons is commemorated on Panel 17 of the Plymouth Naval Memorial and his name is recorded on the Yeovil War Memorial in the Borough.
Other Yeovil lads who went down with HMS Hampshire were 20-year old William Melhuish and 17-year old Walter Adams..
gallery
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission certificate in memory of Harry Parsons.
