A Superb and Rare 1914-15 Star Trio
(Officer Casualty)
5th South Staffs Regt.
To:
Lt. HUGH WHARTON MYDDLETON PARR. S.Staffs R.
Killed In Action. 15th May 1915.
An Old Boy of Clifton College Bristol and of Oxford University.
Lt H.W.M. Parr was KIA on 5th May 1915. He was a keen sportsman Parr was a keen tennis player.... Took a great interest in golf, and was enrolled at Clifton School in 1891; He attended the school for 10 years and was a member of the OTC . After attending Oriel College Oxford he returned to Clifton in 1909 and took up duties as a Master. At the outbreak of war he volunteered for service with the %th Battalion South Staffordshire Regiment and landed in France on the 2nd May 1915 . Less than two weeks later he was with a wiring party (at night) when he was killed by a German rifle bullet.
A letter sent home by his C.O. describes the action near Ypres:
( We think this is perhaps the best letter we have ever read which in our opinion totally sums up the bloody mess which World War One made of our people )
"About one o'clock this morning he was out in front of his trench with a party of men fixing some barbed wire entanglements. A chance bullet, fired at random by a German sentry, who may have detected the noise of men at work, hit him in the neck, and he died almost immediately. I need not tell you what a valuable officer he was. He was one of the very best. Everyone loved him, and his men would do anything for him. Some of them fairly broke down when they knew he had gone. His Captain is inconsolable. It is a grievous bitter loss, and hard to bear, but the war is taking toll of our best, and before it is over will drain the best blood in England very deep. We must steel our hearts and set our teeth to face much more than we have so far endured before the end will be in sight. We are fighting nothing less than Satan and all his angels, and must comport ourselves accordingly."
Comes with copy MIC card :
Address was C/O E.E.M. PARR ESQ
1 NORTHCOTE ROAD
CLIFTON
Age 35 Additional information: Son of the Rev. R. Henning Parr, 1st Vicar of St. Martin's, Scarborough.
Buried at ST. QUENTIN CABARET MILITARY CEMETERY.
Orave/Memorial Reference: I. F. 19. Cemetery:
PRACTICALLY MINT
(SOLD)