A close up of the inscription on the grave of Private John Parr, believed to be the first UK casualty of the First World War.
John Parr (rank L/141916 Private) is generally accepted as the first British soldier to be killed in action in World War One. He was born in Church End Finchley in 1898, but lived most of his short life at 52 Lodge Lane North Finchley. Sometime around 1913 he enlisted at Inglis Barracks, in Mill Hill, at the age of 15 or 16. into the Middlesex Regiment. At the start of World War One in August 1914 Private Parr’s Battalion, the 4th Middlesex, were sent from Davenport to France. By the middle of that month they were billeted near a village called Bettignies. Parr, part of cycle recognizance unit, was sent with a comrade on August 21 to the village of Obourg, just north east of the town of Mons, and slightly over the border in Belgium. It is believed that they encountered a cavalry patrol from the German First Army, and that Parr remained to hold off the enemy whilst his companion returned to report. Parr was certainly killed the same day, but because the army retreated to a new position around the Marne after the first battle of Mons, Parr’s body was left behind. In the ensuing months, the slow entrenchment of the war meant that news of Parr’s death was not recognized until much later. Certainly at the time, there were no dog tags to help with identification, and at the time the army would have been going through a considerable “learning curve”. He was buried at St Symphorien Military Cemetery, and his age is given on the grave as twenty, the army not knowing his true age of sixteen.
Size: 4239px × 2815px
Location: St Symphorien Military Cemetery, Belgium.
Photo credit: © Damien VC / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: /141916, 1, british, casualty, close, commission, commonwealth, cwgc, death, edwin, ellison, english, george, grave, graves, imperial, john, kia, kingdom, middlesex, mons, obourg, parr, private, regiment, st, symphorien, united, war, world, ww1
