On This Day, 30 December 1916

Birmingham Daily Post

Saturday 30 December 1916

BIRMINGHAM OFFICER KILLED.

The Rev. W. H. Parker, vicar of St. Peter’s, Birmingham, has been officially notified that his elder son, Lieut. Cecil W. H. Parker, of the Worcestershire Regiment, has been killed in action. The young officer, who was born at the Croghan Rectory, co. Roscommon in 1894, was educated at Edgbaston Preparatory School and King Edward’s High School, Birmingham (1905-1914), where he obtained a scholarship. He won a cadetship at Sandhurst in 1912, but was refused on account of insufficient chest measurement. On leaving from the first class he was, in May 1914, commissioned second lieutenant in the Special Reserve to the Worcestershire Regiment. He went to France in October, 1914, was in the first battle of Ypres, where the Worcestershires were specially mentioned by the Commander-in-Chief; was selected for service in the Cameroons, February 1915; in torpedoed s.s. Falaba. March 15. After nine month’s home service he returned to France in March, 1916, and took part in numerous engagements, in which he was for some time acting-captain, and was commended for distinguished bravery in action by the Brigadier-General.